Accessibility is about building web experiences that can be navigated, read and understood by everyone, regardless of disability, location, experience or technology.
"The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."
Devices and software
Input devices and software used to access web content
- Mouse
- Standard mouse
- Oversized trackball mouse
- Keyboards
- Standard keyboard
- Adaptive Keyboards
- Virtual keyboards (or Hot virtual keyboard)
- Mouth sticks
- Head wands
- Switches
- Sip and puff switches
- Eye tracking devices
- Voice recognition software
Output devices and software used for web content
- Graphic browsers
- Text browsers
- Audio screen readers - including:
- Inbuilt Readers such as Windows Narrator
- Home Page Reader
- JAWS
- Window-Eyes
- Braille devices
- Screen magnifiers - including:
- Inbuilt Magnifier such as Windows Magnifier, Macintosh Universal Access
- ZoomText
- MAGic
- Printers
- Projectors
- PDAs
Why bother with accessibility?
- Legal reasons
- Moral reasons
- Public service reasons
- Commercial reasons
- Accessible web pages benefit everyone
Some quick ways to improve accessibility
- Can you access all areas of the web page with just the keyboard?
- Are
altattributes used for all descriptive images? - Does the site use relative units for text size?
- Do any aspects of the layout break if font size is increased?
- Does the site use visible skip menus?
- Does the site use accessible forms?
- Does the site use accessible tables?
- Is there sufficient colour brightness/contrasts?
- Is colour alone used for critical information?
- Do functions on the site require a good eye and a steady hand?
- Are all links descriptive?
- Does the site work well in a range of browser window sizes?