Tips and tools for web accessibility

Accessibility, in Internet terms, means designing for people who may have physical disabilities, don't have the latest equipment or who have options switched off for security. That includes a huge part of the population.  And designing for accessibility is the same as design for usability, which benefits us all.

Accessibility, in Internet terms, means designing for people who may have physical disabilities, older equipment or software, slow connections, or lack (or have switched off) common plug-ins such as JavaScript, Cookies, image display etc.

This actually includes a huge proportion of the viewing population.

• physical disabilities: poor or no eyesight, colour blindness, tremors (e.g. Parkinson's, lack of fine motor control due to e.g. arthritis), cognitive disabilities, deafness,
• older equipment or software,
• slow connections - 28 or 56k modem
• lack (or have switched off) common plug-ins such as JavaScript, Cookies, image display etc.

Planned accessibility is absolutely essential to our website for several reasons:

• As a government supported website, our information must be as widely accessible as possible.
• A significant proportion of readers use accessibility aids; this will increase as NZ population ages.
• As an information site for community organisations, our clients include organisations working with people with disabilities. We must "walk the talk" - and we want to demonstrate best practice.
• With planned accessibility we get small page file sizes; browser compatibility; clear, understandable navigation; readable information - in other words, we get usability.
• If accessibility is planned in from the start, costs are minimal - in fact it saves money in less bandwidth and easier maintenance. But retrofitting accessibility can be difficult and time consuming.

Some top priorities for accessibility are:

• Text based navigation with good contrast.
• Smoothly resizable pages and text (make this easy with CSS and ems)
• Access keys for blind/mouseless navigation.
• Key information in HTML and/or .RTF format - never just in Adobe or MS Word
• Choose colours with sufficient contrast between text and background - websafe colours for preference 
  http://colorlab.wickline.org/colorblind/colorlab/
  See how it looks: http://colorfilter.wickline.org/?j=1;t=k
• Make 'reader-writer' friendly - include format and size in download hyperlink text
• Make it fast
• Keep it clean - don't paste straight from Word documents; this adds large quantities of complex HTML. Paste into Notepad first, or use  

For checking all these, use the Accessibility Toolbar’s great tools: www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=614

An audit of 150 government funded websites in 2005 showed up common problems, as well as excellent sites. Reading it tells you what to look out for.  See http://tinyurl.com/hnkbq or http://www.odi.govt.nz/publications/bridging-digital-divide/executive-summary.html

 

CommunityNet's commitment to accessibility:

Accessibility of the CommunityNet Aotearoa has been a major focus - indeed a passion - throughout its life:

To be accessible

• The website was redesigned with accessibility in mind in 2002, and has since been enhanced to keep up with best practice for accessibility and meet and exceed e-Government webguide lines. This has required education of the website designers and developers we work with.
• We commissioned an accessibility audit, and have followed up on the suggestions in the very positive report.
• We publish our email Panui newsletter in the TEN standard text format for maximum accessibility, and promote the standard.
• Our long term plan includes a commitment to the Disability strategy and we have a Advisory Group member representing the Disability sector.

To be an exemplar

• The website includes information on our accessibility, and includes the accessibility audit report. We also have accessibility resources in the How-to section.
• As often as possible, we include stories, examples and tips on accessibility on the website and in Panui.
• The website was one of three (of more than 150 sites) to receive an inaugural Accessibility Accreditation Award.

To support and promote accessibility

• We have fed numerous suggestions to the NZ Accessibility e-Govt Guidelines working group, and these have been well received.
• We have been asked to review other government sites, and have done so, including a focus on accessibility.
• We have contributed to the National Digital Content Strategy, including a focus on accessibility.
• We have written Content Writing Guidelines, including a focus on accessibility, for use in Digital Strategy projects.