n 1995 a new era of
accessibility for disabled Blind users
people began. The
Disability Discrimination Act was Internet users who have no sight
passed, stating that: at all utilize a screen reader,
which reads the content of the
"It is unlawful for a service web page, or rather the HTML
provider to discriminate against (HyperText Markup Language) code
a disabled person by refusing to of the page, back to them. These
provide any service which it machines sift through the HTML
provides to members of the code and the technology deciphers
public." what needs to be read aloud and
what should be ignored. IBM's
A website is regarded as a screen reader can be downloaded
service and the RNIB (Royal for a free 30-day trial at
National Institute for the Blind) http://www-3.ibm.com/able/solutio
and DRC (Disability Rights n_offerings/hpr.html. Once you
Commission) have been quick to have downloaded it, go to your
apply pressure on to website, turn your monitor off,
organisations to push this law and try to navigate your website.
into practice. Indeed, the DRC
has now published its formal Partial/poor sight
investigation into 1000 websites
(http://www.drc-gb.org/publicatio To take full advantage of the
nsandreports/2.pdf). Internet, users with partial or
poor sight need to be able to
So, how do disabled people access enlarge the text on web pages. To
the Internet? There are a number verify that your website allows
of different ways depending on them to achieve this on Internet
their particular disability: Explorer, go to View > Font size
> Largest. If your site is able-bodied people with one key
accessible to this group of users exception - audio content. If it
then the size of the text is a key function of your website
throughout the page will for people to be able to hear a
increase. Users with poor vision message, then be sure to provide
can also use a screen magnifier. written transcripts.
You can download a free screen
magnifier at Keyboard/voice only users
http://www.magnifiers.org/links/D
ownload_Software/Screen_Magnifier Some of your site users do not
s/ and see for yourself. have access to a mouse when
browsing the Internet. Try
Colour blindness putting yourself in their
position by navigating your
It is estimated that one in 12 website using only tab,
men and one in 200 women have shift-tab, and the return keys.
some form of colour blindness
(http://www.iee.org/Policy/Areas/ Other users
Health/cvdintro.cfm). You can
check how Internet users with Other people who may access your
different strains of colour website that have disadvantages
blindness are viewing your include:
website at
http://www.tesspub.com/colours.ht - Epileptic users who must always
ml. be careful to avoid seeing
flickering between 2 and 55 Hz
Deaf users
- Web users from outside your
Deaf users are able to access the industry who may not understand
Internet in much the same way as industry jargon or acronyms
position of one of these web
- Web users whose first language users try out the DRC's
is not English and who may not be inaccessible website
able to comprehend complicated demonstration at
language www.drc-gb.org/open4all/newsroom/
website6.asp.
To really put yourself in the
About the Author:
This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.
Read more articles by:
Trenton Moss
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
