Is Your Website Accessible

Is Your Website Accessible Build a platform! urge publishing gurus. Establish an online presence! You dutifully obey. Facebook? On it. Twitter? Rule it. Website? Of course, and it rocks! But did you know you might be restricting an entire group of users and customers from accessing your website and hence, from reaching you? This group consists of people with disabilities. The US Census Bureau states nearly 57 million people, thats 19 percent of civilians, have a disability. Youmay have a family member or friend, know a neighbour or student who is disabled. Imagine them trying to do a basic search online that you take for granted. These same people are also doing exactly what the rest of us are: working, enjoying food and drink, leisure and relaxation, sport and adventure. So why should they be prevented from utilising something as normal and taken-for-granted as a website? What is accessibility? Accessibility describes the degree to which a product, service, or environment is available to people. The more the number of people who can use it, the higher its accessibility. Correctly designed and developed websites empower everyone to have equal access to information and services. Examples of accessibility include: Providing text descriptions of images with meaningful links helps blind users using text-to-speech software or text-to-Braille hardware to read the content. Enabling text and images to enlarge helps users with poor eyesight.   Underlining and highlighting hyperlinks helps colour blind users notice them. Making action areas, like hyperlinks and buttons, large; and enabling keyboard navigation of menus helps users who cant control a mouse with precision or cant keep their hands steady. Captioning videos or providing sign language versions helps the deaf. Avoiding excessive flashing, flickering and special effects considers users prone to seizures. Writing content in plain language and illustrating with diagrams helps users with dyslexia and learning difficulties understand better. Is your website accessible enough? There are a number of options online to help you find out. A one-click website accessibility audit likehttp://wave.webaim.org/ is a system test that can identify accessibility problems and provide guidance on remedial steps. A list of other automated tools available to evaluate website features can be found here: w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/index.html. These tools dont test everything, but can provide a good idea of the extent of your websites accessibility. Must I make my website accessible? While accessibility is not required Your website is your showcase to the world, your online home. Youre proud of it and have invested time and resources in making it useful, relevant and dynamic. You want everybody whos anybody to visit it. Follow the four principles of accessibility explained in simple English athttp://devyaniborade.blogspot.com/p/principles-of-web-accessibility.html to make your website more accessible to all.