ECOMP 5007: Web Accessibility

In class we had an opportunity to see some of the accessibility features built into the operating systems of today’s computers. We also saw a variety of assistive technology products that allow students with or without disabilities to perform better in the educational setting. All of these things provide accessibility; but what about the World Wide Web? How accessible is it, and what is being done to improve accessibility?

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Web accessibility is a topic that has been around for a while. I remember the topic coming up back in college when I began designing my first website using Netscape Composer. Even then such webpage editors were including prompts and fields to encourage the writer to make their content more accessible, such as alternate text when adding an image. Today, more and more web editors are working to provide accessibility options for web designers; I noticed several extra fields in my Wordpress blog editor just last week. These extra fields were prompting me to include additional information that would help visually impaired users of the Internet to be able to consume the information on my blog easier.

As I watched the two videos from WebAIM I sympathized with the students and recognized their frustration and disappointment in the Internet. I got to thinking about some of the websites that I’ve visited that I found difficult to navigate in and thought, if I am frustrated with this site how would a person with web accessibility issues feel? It seems like, as more and more websites move to flashier pages with animated graphics they are also leaving behind people who could be potential consumers, customers, and/or contributors. What it really comes back to is a very old yet very relevant concept: know your audience. Once you have that nailed down, you can adapt your content or message for maximum coverage and distribution. 

I think many of us take the Internet for granted with respect to how the information found on it is communicated. I was really impressed with what Curtis Radford, who is hearing impaired, said when he described himself in the first WebAIM video. He can think, he can read, he can write, and he doesn’t see himself as having a disability…he just can’t hear. So why shouldn’t he be able to consume and contribute to the wealth of content that the Internet provides?

Recently our IT director re-designed all of our school websites and made them more “interactive” with animated flash graphics, embedded Google calendars, and Twitter feeds. I decided to take a page out of my cohort colleague Chad’s handbook and tried to navigate the middle school homepage without using my mouse. Okay, I have to admit that it took less than a minute to cheat, but I had use my mouse in order to bypass the animated flash graphic at the top of the homepage. After that I tried again and, while I was moderately successful in navigating to where I wanted to go, it sure did take a long time to get there without a mouse. And I remember when computers didn’t come with a mouse and all of your navigation was done by keyboard commands…how times have changed.