When I’m talking about web site accessibility, I often find myself qualifying at times, “accessibility, especially for those with disabilities.” At first, I’d catch it and ponder if that was a redundant statement.

It isn’t at all redundant. Making a web site “accessible” doesn’t strictly mean making it easier to navigate for those with disabilities. By structuring a website with clean, correct and orderly code, images and text with sufficient color contrast, supplying meaningful alt tags, logical tabbing order, etcetera, you’re creating an experience that’s all around better for all visitors.

Clean, concise site navigation benefits everybody. Descriptive links that actually identify where they are taking you benefits everybody. Forms that are properly labeled and orderly benefit everybody.

There are also people visiting your site with slower Internet connections. There are those who prefer browsers other than just Internet Explorer or Firefox.

There are also visitors to your sites who particularly prefer semantic, clean code. They’re called search engines. Poor or nonexistent titles and header tags hurt search relevant, in addition to giving screen readers a hard time identifying pages and elements.

Accessibility covers a whole lot of ground beyond just disabilities.

Tags: accessibility, header tags, search engine optimization, seo

Last week Monday when I attended “Multiple Facets of Accessible Design” at Milwaukee’s IndependenceFirst, I came away with a treasure trove of excellent material to share.

In my last couple posts, I recapped the insights of Shawn Henry and Scott Mayer. That was only part of the experience. After their presentations, we were treated to a tour of the IndependenceFirst facilities.

Carol Voss, the Public Relations and Marketing Director as well as the Twitter voice for IndependenceFirst, took our small group around the building. It was really great to finally meet Carol in person, after many months of Twitter conversations as well as the email interview she had done for this blog in summer. (See IndependenceFirst interview part one, two, and three)

It wasn’t news to me that constructing a building for an organization servicing the disabled requires special considerations. However, it was both surprising and deeply impressive to see the extent of it.

For example, consider the floors. In the hallways, the floors have darker borders, to serve as a visual waypoint where the halls continue and where they lead to doorways.

Also, no matter the flooring material — carpeting, tile, wood, whatever — all surface transitions are completely flat and even. This is very important for those traversing room to room via wheelchair or with difficulties walking. It also requires a tremendous level of attention and detail by the building constructors.

Something else that I hadn’t considered before but makes perfect sense — there are activation buttons for opening doors just about floor level, in addition to their typical higher location. This enables somebody unable to use their hands to open the door with their foot.

Similarly, door handles as well as scanners for security access are lower than you typically see at other offices, to further increase accessibility to wheelchair users.

This is the just the physical makeup of the building, but such details go a long way in making it easier for those with disabilities to fully utilize the facilities. If you think that’s impressive, in my next post, we’ll share even more examples. From copy machines and weight scales to cafeterias and library rooms, there are a whole lot more accessibility considerations within the walls of IndependenceFirst.

Tags: IndependenceFIRST, milwaukee, wheelchair accessibility

What does accessibility mean to me?

Accessibility is all about lack of restrictions. It is about opening pathways to all people regardless of any limitations. It is an even playing field.

(This is my response to an excellent project put forth by Glenda Watson Hyatt on her blog, Do it Myself Blog. I encourage everyone with a passion for accessibility to follow the instructions and share your thoughts as well!

In my last post, I began sharing many thoughts about my visit to IndependenceFirst on Monday, to attend “Multiple Facets of Accessible Design.” It was an excellent presentation facilitated by MilwauCHI.

I rambled so excitedly in my coverage of Shawn Henry’s presentation that I needed to split things up into multiple blog posts to do them justice.

The second presenter was Scott Mayer from American Family Insurance, a usability services specialist who became blind at the age of 24.

He led off with some interesting statistics about disabled people in the United States:

Scott then demonstrated how he uses the Internet via his JAWS screen reader. I’ve got to tell you, that was one of the most revealing experiences I’ve had since focusing on accessibility.

I’ve been tackling the subject in my own incremental way, and while I’ve watched a video here and there demonstrating screen readers, there was something completely different about seeing one in action.

Scott showed examples of good and bad accessibility using his screen reader. On one site, he showed how he was unable to pay a bill on a banking site because the actionable button for signing on was invisible to the screen reader.

Another interesting point – Scott talked about how many sites, particularly in the financial sector, tend to go through redesigns often. Some financial sites do it almost quarterly. While constant evolution and enhancement may seem like an all-around great idea, somebody like Scott has to completely re-learn how to get around that site each time they retool it.

Scott explained how automated accessibility testing is not enough. There is no replacement for usability testing with disabled users.

People tend to treat disabled consumers like Scott differently, thinking them to be less educated or poorer. He shared an experience in which he and his wife took their car in for repairs, and how the attendants didn’t even consider for a moment that a blind user may know something about car repairs. They barely acknowledged him.

Physical stores tend to be useless to somebody like Scott. He frequently utilizes the Internet to buy things and have them shipped to his home.

Just because somebody is blind, or deaf, or has some sort of disability, don’t assume they are less intelligent or some poor, destitute person. It may be easy for some businesses to dismiss what they assume is an insignificant minority of potential visitors to their web site, but there is an awful lot of ignorance steeped in that attitude.

And I haven’t even gotten to my first tour of IndependenceFirst! We’ll save that for next week’s posts!

Tags: assistive technology, IndependenceFIRST, jaws, milwauCHI, milwaukee, Scott Mayer, visually impaired

I’m excited to mention that there will be an accessibility presentation right here in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area this month.

On January 18th, “Multiple Facets of Accessible Design” will take place at IndependenceFirst. Shawn Henry from the W3C and Scott Mayer from the American Family Usability Department will be the guest speakers.

Those of you who follow this blog may recall the three-part interview I conducted with Carol Voss from IndependenceFirst last July. I really enjoyed that experience and am very much looking forward to making my first visit to their facilities. Part of the evening’s events includes a tour of IndependenceFirst.

The event is being held by MilwauCHI, the Milwaukee-based chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.

For more information, visit the MilwauCHI web site.

Related Links:

Tags: association for computing machinery special interest group, computer-human interaction, IndependenceFIRST, milwauCHI, milwaukee, Scott Mayer, shawn henry, usability, W3C