Web Accessibility = Equal Opportunity: A primer

Accessibility is a global concept and one would find a lot of articles on this; however wanted to share my personal experience in addition to introducing Web Accessibility.

I got introduced to Web Accessibility in 2011 on the job of making an online banking portal for a large bank, universally accessible. This was a herculean task as this activity was saved for the last.

We were on the development side of the house and were supported by this fabulous team of ‘specialized testers’ recommending fixes and testing them in turn. The emphasis on the testing team is for the fact that these testers were not only specialized, but ‘extremely special’. They were no ordinary users, but users with actual physical disabilities. This team comprised of users with visual impairments totally dependent on screen readers and motor skills impairments dependent on keyboard only access.  

Imagine you being blindfolded, and asked to perform an online funds transfer just by listening to a voice with a strong accent. We would give up with the very thought of it. However the dedication and commitment displayed within that team was simply fantastic. The “positive can-do attitude” in them was something that really inspired the development team to work harder and today the portal is accessible to all kind of users.  This experience left the entire team with a new perspective on web development.

What is this all about? Read on to know more.

What is Web Accessibility?

For most people, surfing the web is like performing any daily ritual and they take things for granted. For people with disabilities however, this may not be the case. They may not even be in a position to read a newspaper or listen to a podcast due to their disabilities. Disabilities / Impairments could be one of visual impairments, hearing impairments, motor impairments or cognitive impairments. And these impairments may occur at birth, due to accident or illness, in certain situations or due to ageing.

Web accessibility is designing the web in such a way that not only normal users but users with disabilities should be able to use the web easily. It means that people with disabilities should also be able to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact and contribute to the web.

Why do we need Web Accessibility?

Biggest misconception - Accessibility is all about disability and disabled users. Wrong, Accessibility is about universality. Normal users could also end up with temporary or permanent disabilities due to ageing or certain unfortunate incidents in their life. As we all know the role of internet in our lives, it is very vital that the web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities.

Some reasons for adopting accessibility in the web applications are as follows:

Humanitarian Grounds

Web Accessibility is mainly required to empower users with disabilities and enabling them to participate actively. There are so many people for whom interacting in the physical world is really tough, yet interacting with an accessible web is easy. When a website is designed in such a way, such users can also do all the things a normal user would do. If this is not done, then these act as barriers for people with disabilities. 

With accessible websites, users with visual impairments can perform a bank account transfer while users with motor skills impairments can shop online to get groceries, gadgets, and gifts delivered. Users with speech disabilities can participate in online chats and forums, while users who are deaf can read the latest news feeds. Age is the key driver and with the percentage of old users increasing day by day, accessible websites work better for these users and their age-related accessibility needs.

Legal Requirement

Additionally Accessibility is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT and any website denying the access to users with disabilities can face serious legal consequences. Some of the notable acts are mentioned below:

• U.K. Equality Act
• European Accessibility Act
• Australian Disability Act

In India, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) has recently launched the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) as a nation-wide campaign for achieving universal accessibility for persons with disabilities.

Good for business

Approximately up to 16% of the world's population is disabled; either through birth, aging, illness, or the result of an accident and. 8% of the males have problems seeing color. Hence this is definitely too large a market too ignore.

How do disabled users access the web?

When websites are designed keeping accessibility in mind, users with disabilities can make use of Assistive technologies which aid them to perform transactions of their choice. These are adaptive devices and promote greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish.

To mention some of them:

• For blind users screen readers are available that will help read the content aloud while magnifiers are available for users with low vision.
• Braille embossers act as substitute for printers where instead of adding ink onto a page, the braille embosser imprints the raised dots of braille onto a page assisting blind users.
• Alternative keyboards featuring larger or smaller-than-standard keys or keyboards, on screen keyboards or speech recognition programs can assist users with motor skill impairments.

Basic considerations while designing and developing Accessible websites

Alternate text for images, mark ups for headings and lists , table column association in HTML, keyboard-only access, proper sequential focus, captions / transcripts for audios & videos, color schemes to identify components supported by labels and appropriate color contrast are some of the basis aspects of accessibility one must keep in mind while developing a web application right from the beginning.

Many websites are more accessible now than they were years ago, and they include accessibility considerations in their web development process too. However, it’s often too late in the process. In certain cases a separate team is formulated to make the application accessible. Accessibility should be fully into the development processes right from the beginning and all the designers and programmers should be accounted in for designing and developing accessible web applications.  

In an ideal scenario, accessibility should be integrated as “business as usual” along with the main stream development.

Know more?

W3C established the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in 1997 to address Accessibility. As a part of this initiative, WAI has developed a lot guidelines and techniques which are regarded as the international standards for web Accessibility. Additionally one can freely access online presentations and tutorials which help understand accessibility further.

Please refer : https://www.w3.org/WAI/

Don’t look at my dis ability