Wheelchair Ramps for the Web?

Anyone who’s run across my articles online is likely to know that one of my pet subjects is accessible web design.

Most conversations where the topic of disability access on the internet rears its head will usually go something like this:

FP: “Accessible web design? What? Like wheelchair access or something?”
IG: “No (you foolish person), I’m actually talking about blind or partially sighted web users.”
FP: “Blind web users? How the hell do they see what’s on the screen?”
IG: “They can’t.  They’re blind, remember? They use Braille keyboards and software which reads a site’s content out loud so they can hear it.”
FP: “You’re winding me up.”
IG: “Not at all. Look it up online. The best known screen reader is called JAWS.”
FP: “Stop taking the p*ss. Jaws is that bloke out of that Bond film.”

Things normally deteriorate rapidly at this stage, as most people who know me are aware that I’m prone to the occasional wind-up such as sending my brother in law hunting up and down Colchester high street in search of the “Viking Helmet Shop” after making a rather convincing case at a party the previous night.

But that is another story…

In any case, whilst wheelchair access for the web is certainly a novel idea, the example above does illustrate the general public’s level of ignorance with regards to disability access on the internet or the available technologies to aid disabled web users. 

Let me get this straight; our technology has put a man on the moon (allegedly), given us enough nuclear weapons to destroy humanity several times over and produced the USB powered coffee warming plate, yet you doubt the existence of a simple piece of software which is able to read written text out loud?

Worse still, many internet professionals are still largely unaware of accessible web design standards or choose to simply ignore them since they are seen as too much hassle and an unnecessary expense during site development.
All in all this is a sad state of affairs, especially in light of the many promotional advantages properly implemented accessibility brings with it.

I recently found myself in a chat forum where someone was spouting on about the complete and utter irrelevance of disability access standards since blind internet users only account for, as he put it, ‘an infinitely small and completely unimportant percentage of total users’.

Sometimes I do ask myself whether ignorance is truly bliss, since the individual in question seemed anything but blissful.

Ok, to be fair, the disabled do represent a very small proportion of total web users, but this is not exactly a good excuse to totally ignore them, especially as every other aspect of society has to make provision to give the same levels of access regardless of a person’s disability.

If this is not a good enough excuse to make provisions, there’s always the comparatively little known fact that search engine spiders sent out by Google, MSN, YAHOO and others will view a web site in much the same way a blind visitor’s text only browser would and will therefore find the task far easier if disability access provisions have been made.
So… if you, as a web designer, ignore the needs of blind internet users you’re making a your own life difficult where web promotion is concerned.

I love the smell of poetic justice in the morning.

Furthermore, a recent court case launched by the National Federation of the Blind against U.S. online retailer Target.com has highlighted the fact that accessible web design can no longer be ignored by web-based businesses.

Should you want further information about disability access on the web, you can visit the World Wide Web Consortium site’s ’Web Accessibility Initiative‘ section.
The IceGiant web site’s article section also contains further reading material on the topic of Web Accessibility.

But enough of this.
It’s getting late and I have to talk to my brother in law about Bonsai Volcanoes.

Food for thought?
I think so.