As a member of Wealthy Affiliate, a community which pays it forward and enjoys helping everyone, I feel it is necessary to blog about an important and vital issue we should all be thinking about as we develop our niche and WA Bootcamp sites. That issue is Web Accessibility.
As we design our websites, I want to remind everyone the importance of making sure our web content is accessible to individuals with disabilities. Not only is it the ethical and moral thing to do, there are laws which protect the right of individuals with disabilities to view content on the internet. Section 508, Americans with Disabilities Act and the United Nations Enable program focusing on international exposure for Human Rights and Persons with Disabilities has specific guidelines for individuals with disabilities using the internet.
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stephhill
Premium Plus
Hi Theuns!
As far as my empathy and sincerity with disabled people, I have ADHD myself and my son has Asperger's Syndrome and my father was blind in one eye and I worked for in the field of special education for many years, so I tend to always think of those with different needs.
Steph
As far as my empathy and sincerity with disabled people, I have ADHD myself and my son has Asperger's Syndrome and my father was blind in one eye and I worked for in the field of special education for many years, so I tend to always think of those with different needs.
Steph
solidbase
Premium
Sorry to hear about your own problems.
We will hold hands and walk the road together.
Stay safe.
-Theuns
We will hold hands and walk the road together.
Stay safe.
-Theuns
stephhill
Premium Plus
RaphyAbano
Premium
Hey Steph, nice article on accessibility. I'm with you on this one, and it's definitely something I've encountered at my work (I do e-learning courses) - although I know I should be doing this to my own niche site.
I'd like to share a couple of things I learned as well in my attempts to adhere to both Section 508 and WCAG Compliance:
- Most browsers (and operating systems) carry a "focus box" function which can be enabled using the Tab Key. This will either appear as a bright colored box or as a thin, broken line. Screen readers will recognize this as the viewer's "focal point", and will read out any text on screen or alt-text that has been included in any image.
- I'm sure this isn't applicable to our sites, but as much as possible, avoid any "drag-and-drop" functions on sites as accessibility tools do not provide any means of emulating this.
- Animated content is challenging to view when it comes to accessibility. As much as possible, keep content static, but if it is needed, ensure that there is an alt-text implemented.
- If you're using video, be sure to check if the media you're using has a separate channel for "described audio" as well as an option for closed captioning. This way you are able to accommodate users with your rich media content.
These are just some of the ones I've come to learn about, and so I felt that it should be shared to everyone here. Hope it helps!
- Raphy
I'd like to share a couple of things I learned as well in my attempts to adhere to both Section 508 and WCAG Compliance:
- Most browsers (and operating systems) carry a "focus box" function which can be enabled using the Tab Key. This will either appear as a bright colored box or as a thin, broken line. Screen readers will recognize this as the viewer's "focal point", and will read out any text on screen or alt-text that has been included in any image.
- I'm sure this isn't applicable to our sites, but as much as possible, avoid any "drag-and-drop" functions on sites as accessibility tools do not provide any means of emulating this.
- Animated content is challenging to view when it comes to accessibility. As much as possible, keep content static, but if it is needed, ensure that there is an alt-text implemented.
- If you're using video, be sure to check if the media you're using has a separate channel for "described audio" as well as an option for closed captioning. This way you are able to accommodate users with your rich media content.
These are just some of the ones I've come to learn about, and so I felt that it should be shared to everyone here. Hope it helps!
- Raphy
stephhill
Premium Plus
Hi Raphy!
Those are all awesome points too when considering accessibility and I cannot thank you enough for adding to the discussion on it. As I mentioned in the training and earlier in these comments, I only scratched the surface when it comes to creating accessible content for our websites and images. I appreciate all of those added tools. I sometimes have cautioned folks about using the drag and drop because of the reason you stated above.
You are fabulous for providing these added suggestions when taking into the consideration individuals with varying abilities.
Steph
Those are all awesome points too when considering accessibility and I cannot thank you enough for adding to the discussion on it. As I mentioned in the training and earlier in these comments, I only scratched the surface when it comes to creating accessible content for our websites and images. I appreciate all of those added tools. I sometimes have cautioned folks about using the drag and drop because of the reason you stated above.
You are fabulous for providing these added suggestions when taking into the consideration individuals with varying abilities.
Steph
RaphyAbano
Premium
Thanks Steph, I'm glad to help any way I can. Thanks as well for bringing this up.
Accessibility is definitely something that can be tricky to pull off, yet the important thing is to have it in mind during any part of web development. There's no umbrella solution for all disabilities as there are plenty of known and unknown ones out there, and each of them have different needs. But the best we can do is to accommodate them as best as possible with the tools that we have.
Best,
Raphy
Accessibility is definitely something that can be tricky to pull off, yet the important thing is to have it in mind during any part of web development. There's no umbrella solution for all disabilities as there are plenty of known and unknown ones out there, and each of them have different needs. But the best we can do is to accommodate them as best as possible with the tools that we have.
Best,
Raphy
stephhill
Premium Plus
Hi Raphy!
Well said. It is impossible to cover all the bases for all types of disabilities like you said, but as long as we are making a good faith effort to accommodate those that we can, we are a million steps ahead of so many other web developers out there.
Steph
Well said. It is impossible to cover all the bases for all types of disabilities like you said, but as long as we are making a good faith effort to accommodate those that we can, we are a million steps ahead of so many other web developers out there.
Steph
