Accessibility for Disability

More and more government agencies are making it a law to cater to all audiences. As a marketer, this applies too. You need to create a website accessible to all users. The goal in accessibility is to make the website content readable and comprehendible to all readers, regardless of ability. It's important to consider the possible physical disabilities of a visitor. Nowadays there is an astonishing number of people with disabilities. Many of these disabilities don't affect website browsing in the least, say a paraplegic or foot amputee. The most common disabilities that would affect website accessibility are visual and hearing impairments. Approximately between seven to twenty percent of the US population fall into this category. (Of course the numbers climb with age.) Accessibility is about access. Likened to installing a ramp alongside the stairs leading into your office building or adding Braille lettering to the signs for the restrooms, it's a courtesy to help those with disabilities maneuver through every day life as easy as possible.

Accessibility is equally as important as any other facet in your website's design . All web developers need to keep in mind that people with visual impairments or who have difficulty grasping a mouse will most probably be among their site's visitors and they need to build their site accordingly. A screen reader is a technological advancement that reads out written text on the screen for the users who can't read for themselves. Creating an image-heavy site in this case isn't so conducive for the screen reader to properly convey your content. A screen reader is able to pull out all links from a page. It has the ability to scan a site to determine what it's about too. It's generally a good idea to include some links at the top of your page that give users the opportunity to skip right over to the main content or navigation of your site. This is referred to as 'Skip Links".

Another common phenomena are people who have difficulty with small fonts or contrasts that are not clearly defined, or even colorblind users. Many times they will employ the assistance of a screen magnifier which magnifies the text and images on the screen. When constructing your website make sure that the images will remain clear and complete even when zoomed in on. Instituting scalable fonts on your site are also a big plus. Many web pages sport combinations of background and foreground colors that cause extreme difficulty for colorblind users to decipher the content. There are a bunch of creative techniques available to implement into your site to make it easier for those who have difficulty, like features that will change the colors or define the contrasts on the page.

With regard to auditory impairments, most times the usability of a site remains the same with the sound turned off. However with the trends veering more towards multimedia, it may become a bigger issue. A way to help the situation may be to place subtitles on the video clip ( which will benefit foreign viewers too). In general, anything with sound that is important for the content of your site should be transcripted to enable those with hearing difficulties, equal comprehension.

The great thing about accessibility is that it is universally appreciated! Even for people who have no impairments, it's a major help. Accessibility ensures that viewers using a cellphone, laptop or any other medium, see the content and images displayed clearly and derive the effect that you were looking to create!