0
0
Disabilities, both physical and cognitive, may adversely influence the way how people interact with the web. Some people cannot perceive the text and visual content properly, whereas some others may have problems with audio content on web pages. A few have difficulty using a keyboard or mouse to navigate through the web pages, whereas others may have dyslexia or learning difficulties inferring the content properly. Ensuring accessibility will make sure that the people with disabilities too will be able to interact effectively with the world and stay connected with their friends and family.
The contest of web accessibility – AccessiBe
AccessiBe explains web accessibility as the means of ensuring everyone is able to use web-based technologies equally as others and enjoy its benefits to the fullest regardless of their disabilities. This includes but is not limited to getting visual info and audio info, understanding information online, and completing all transactions without any limitations.
Web accessibility is also very critical for people with temporary disabilities as well as permanent disabilities. Provided the scope of configuring software or building hardware as per the special needs and user preferences, the approach of personalization for accessibility can greatly improve the quality of life for numerous people living across the globe with some sort of disabilities.
In fact, there are many advantages of accessible computing which benefit even people without disabilities. For example, for those working in a loud environment, the option of subtitles and descriptive text will help them understand the content of audio-video media. Accessibility measures will also help people with low literacy, slow internet connectivity, old-age problems, limitations in smartphone usage, etc., to gain easy access to the web world. So, by all means, it is important to consider the accessibility requirements of all categories of people while building websites or mobile applications to ensure optimum usability.
WAI guidelines
In order to ensure, you may try to follow WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) guidelines by the Protocols and Formats Working Group. This is a consortium of government and industry representatives, researchers, and key personnel from various organizations across the globe. Some of the important guidelines by WAI are as follows:
-
Perceptivity: The content and UI of the websites must be easy for the users to perceive instantly.
-
Operability: The UI elements and web page navigation should be easy.
-
Understandability: The content and page operations of the UI should be understandable to all.
-
Robustness: The web page’s content should be robust by following all the HTML guidelines to be interpreted by the assistive devices.
These WAI principles are applicable to all web development components and interactions so they can seamlessly work together. The major web accessibility elements are:
-
Content in terms of page text, multimedia, layout, etc.
-
Agents like media players, browsers, screen readers, etc.
-
Users and developers.
-
Auditing, evaluating, and authoring tools.
-
Assistive technologies for web accessibly.
Considering the complexity and diversity of the topic of accessibility, it is recommended to consult an accessibility expert to audit and provide recommendations for compliance. AccessiBe is a reliable provider offering various tools and techniques for websites to ensure accessibility compliance.
