The importance of web accessibility in web design
What does the term web accessibility refer to? Unfortunately very few people are familiar with the term web accessibility, and even fewer are recognising its importance.
Web Accessibility refers to the web development practice of making content on the web accessible to all without discrimination to the user's abilities including visual, intellectual, auditory and mobility capabilities.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued guidelines for web developers in order to develop websites which are more accessible for all. These guidelines are known as WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and are now considered as standard guidelines which are widely accepted around the globe.
It may not be immediately apparent for everyone, but a web page relying solely on an image to convey a message is not being accessible to a minor but significant percentage of internet users who are visually impaired. Similarly, a website navigation menu that relies solely on a particular shade of a colour to indicate that the menu item is currently selected is not being fully accessible to its audience which also includes a percentage who are suffering from a colour vision deficiency.
The accessibility guidelines also take into consideration users who suffer from a cognitive impairment, no matter how slight. A website that requires the user to memorise choices and decisions between web pages while navigating is not being considerate of the small yet important percentage of its visitors who might have learning disabilities and other cognitive impairment.
Web browsers such as 'Lynx' exist in order to assist users with special needs while browsing the internet. Such browsers usually have features such as text-to-speech for visually impaired users. Having said that however, it does not mean that the responsibility is being shifted from the web developer to the web browser. Web developers need to pay special attention for this particular reason to produce semantically correct HTML, including meaningful names for links and text alternatives for all images. Links should also be underlined instead of simply coloured, helping colour blind users distinguish between normal text and hyperlinks. Pages should be given adequate titles using <h1> HTML tags, while embedded videos must make use of captions for users suffering from auditory impairments.
The importance of web accessibility for all users can never be emphasised enough and web developers around the glove should be increasingly aware of the importance of the WCAG. Web design in Malta and many other European countries is now being more considerate of these guidelines and web accessibility is slowly becoming part of many recognised web design courses in order to emphasise the fact that web accessibility and web design are not completely separate entities. For further information on web accessibility, please view the web accessibility guidelines.
Web Accessibility refers to the web development practice of making content on the web accessible to all without discrimination to the user's abilities including visual, intellectual, auditory and mobility capabilities.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued guidelines for web developers in order to develop websites which are more accessible for all. These guidelines are known as WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and are now considered as standard guidelines which are widely accepted around the globe.
It may not be immediately apparent for everyone, but a web page relying solely on an image to convey a message is not being accessible to a minor but significant percentage of internet users who are visually impaired. Similarly, a website navigation menu that relies solely on a particular shade of a colour to indicate that the menu item is currently selected is not being fully accessible to its audience which also includes a percentage who are suffering from a colour vision deficiency.
The accessibility guidelines also take into consideration users who suffer from a cognitive impairment, no matter how slight. A website that requires the user to memorise choices and decisions between web pages while navigating is not being considerate of the small yet important percentage of its visitors who might have learning disabilities and other cognitive impairment.
Web browsers such as 'Lynx' exist in order to assist users with special needs while browsing the internet. Such browsers usually have features such as text-to-speech for visually impaired users. Having said that however, it does not mean that the responsibility is being shifted from the web developer to the web browser. Web developers need to pay special attention for this particular reason to produce semantically correct HTML, including meaningful names for links and text alternatives for all images. Links should also be underlined instead of simply coloured, helping colour blind users distinguish between normal text and hyperlinks. Pages should be given adequate titles using <h1> HTML tags, while embedded videos must make use of captions for users suffering from auditory impairments.
The importance of web accessibility for all users can never be emphasised enough and web developers around the glove should be increasingly aware of the importance of the WCAG. Web design in Malta and many other European countries is now being more considerate of these guidelines and web accessibility is slowly becoming part of many recognised web design courses in order to emphasise the fact that web accessibility and web design are not completely separate entities. For further information on web accessibility, please view the web accessibility guidelines.
