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Accessibility: March 22, 2007
The University of South Carolina defines accessibility as a type of technology that allows people with disabilities ranging from visual problems to cognitive impairments to use the Internet. However, WebStyle Guide asserts, "One of the defining principles of the Web is that it should provide all people, regardless of physical or technological readiness, with access to information." Some of the issues we face and should be concerned about as designers are: Try and make a Web site more accessible to people with mobility impairments, make sure that the pages are navigable only by keyboard as indicated on page 222 McCraken and Wolfe. They also advise, "Be sure to avoid creating link text that is only a single character in length. This makes a very small target for people having issues with fine motor control. WebStyle Guide recommends, "The underlying principle of Web accessibility guidelines is simple: if you provide information in any medium besides plain text, you should always provide an alternate, or fallback, version. "
Examples of targeted audience that a designer may have to be concerned about are: the blind, hearing impaired, those with cerebral palsy, photosensitive epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis just to mention a few. Examples of some sites that are bad accessible Web sites are:
Lesley University - The text could be a little too small for the visually impaired.
TV Slovenija - Too many frames and the titles get smaller as countless pages are burried in layers.
Angelfire - Too much flashing and could be harmful against those with photosensitve epilepsy.
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