Making Your Website Acessible to Disabled

Everyone should be able to read your website. Unless your website topic is graphics or music, your website should be accessible to the people with disabilities such as the visually-impaired, hearing-impaired or physically-impaired. Please visit Section 508 which is a US law concerning accessible websites. Read the standards required of the government. If your any part of your target audience is over fifty years old, you should follow this advice.

Do not rely on graphics for contents. There are visitors who use text-to-speech software to hear the contents, because they are visually impaired. Other visitors may be using a text browser for a PC, handheld or phone. Download text-to-speech software to experience your website visit yourself or at least turn off your images in your browser. What is not visible cannot be read by these people or search engines.

If you include graphics, use the ALT attribute to describe the images. If you include graphs and charts, summarize them so the visitor doesn't miss anything.

Don't include multimedia unless it truly enhances the website. If you do, provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video. If using scripts, Java applets, and plug-ins, provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.

Use sound practically. If you wish to include sound, make it optional. Include downloads to play any files and let the visitor know what file extension or format the file is. Sound files that are wav files are common and can be played by most players. Sound files that are mp3s take long to load and should be converted to swf format, though that would require the Shockwave Flash plugin to play them. Try to include on/off and volume adjustments.

Use relative font size instead of absolute font size. If your visitors are using a Mac, your text may be too small. Mac fonts appear up to 20% smaller than PC fonts. The visually impaired can adjust the text size in the browser to a larger size, if necessary. If using Internet Explorer, select View, then Select Text Size. Most people have the default setting of Medium, but you can select Larger or Largest, if the font size is too small.

Do not use color combinations that are difficult to see. Use contrasting colors. Dark or black text on light or white background provide the best visibility. Do not ever use yellow and red together. Those who are color blind won't be able to read it, and the rest of us will strain our eyes. There are many resources such as Visibone that will help you select a better color scheme for your website.

Use consistent navigation. Okay, this last one is for EVERYONE. Don't make your visitors guess how to navigate your website. All consistent navigation menu should be accessible from every page. A site map would also be helpful, if your website has too many pages to include all links on every page. Links can be displayed horizontally at the top and/or the bottom of the page or vertically on the left (preferred) or the right side. Do not scatter links anywhere or alter your menu for different pages (except to highlight a visiting link).

Use text links. Use regular text links and default colors, if possible. Try not to underline items that are not links. Visitors assume underlined text are links and will click on them. When using hypertext links, use text that makes sense when read out of context instead of "click here". Use EM (emphasis tag) instead of B (bold tag) for text-to-speech software to place emphasis when reading.

You can simulate buttons with style tags for the appearance of buttons but the accessibility of text links. If using image maps (images with embedded links), use the client-side map and text for hotspots. Because they are images, they cannot be read by browsers, search engines or all users.

To test if your website is accessible, visit the WebXACT. This free service will allow you to test web pages and help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines, such as Section 508 and the W3C's WCAG. If you use the Firefox web browser, there is a Web Developer add-on that checks source code for accessibility, too. Do not limit your target audience. If your website is accessible to any audience, your website will be more successful.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, August 8, 2003 (Updated January 22, 2008)

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