Chapter 6. Designing for Accessibility
You're a designer. A visually oriented person. And the Web is such a graphic medium, it's easy to forget that not everyone browsing the Web uses his or her eyes. However, the Web is a worldwide community of all types of people, including those with disabilities. The visually impaired want to visit your site. So do people with cognitive or learning disabilities. If these people showed up at your front door, you wouldn't dream of insulting them or making their visit unpleasant. Likewise, when you're building your Web site, you should consider their special situations.Designing for accessibility is about making your Web site's content available to everyone, regardless of disability. The Web isn't the only place where accessibility is important. In fact, the Web is one of the last places to consider accessibility issues. Public buildings need ramps and elevators to provide easy access for the physically impaired. Parking lots set aside the best spots for the handicapped. Movie theaters provide special seats and rows that are easier for wheelchairs. Television goes out with closed captioning for those hard of hearing. It wasn't until the late 1990s that computer people began thinking in the same terms. Now, in the United States and many other countries, accessibility is a matter of law. It's illegal for the U.S. government to award contracts to technology suppliersincluding Web builderswhose products don't follow accessibility guidelines. No one's going to drag you off to the Federal penitentiary if you don't build an accessible Web site. You just won't be able to get on the gravy train and charge the U.S. taxpayers seven thousand dollars per link.
GEEKSPEAKA Web site is accessible if it makes its content available to everyone, including those with disabilities. |
GEEKSPEAKText equivalents are textual descriptions of nontextual content for use in screen readers and other acces sibility tools. |