Accessibility
Chris Haas
December 18, 2017
Topics
Content
Industry insights
Web

Accessibility

Although accessibility has been a part of the web for a very long time, sometimes it can get neglected as a website grows and evolves over time. To be fair to developers, content creators, site owners and the like, the web itself is also constantly changing. What we did yesterday might not be relevant today and there are things today that we didn't even think about earlier that are commonplace now.

What is accessibility?

According to the W3C

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web.

That's probably the definition that most people think of, but unfortunately, at least to me, it basically divides the world into two camps, people with disabilities and people without disabilities.

Instead, I really think that Mozilla's definition does a much better job.

Accessibility is the practice of making your websites usable by as many people as possible.

I really like that "as many people as possible" part. The goal of accessibility isn't to fix problems for individual subsets of users with specific needs. Instead, we know you have content and our goal is to get as many people as possible to your content.

ADA

In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 made it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities. Although it didn't specifically address the internet or the web, the act was far-reaching from public utilities to transportation to employment and laid out some basic expectations and rights for people.

Section 508

Section 508 is an amendment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, first created in 1986 but not given any real "teeth" until 1998. Section 508 dealt with all forms of electronic interaction but from a website perspective, it actually made some fairly specific recommendations (for the time) in regard to accessibility including color, contrast, alternatives to images and tabular data. Although Section 508 does not apply directly to private business, it does apply to any website that receives federal funds, either directly or indirectly.

WCAG

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are evolving accessibility standards for websites to follow with various levels of conformance or priority. Version 1.0 was released in 1999 and defined three "checkpoints" that developers must, should or may implement to affect a document's accessibility. This version actually mapped closely with Section 508. Version 2.0 was released in 2008 and defined four core principles for websites and their content (perceivable, operable, understandable and robust) along with twelve guidelines and three levels of conformance.

How many people does this affect?

The reporting and classification for people with disabilities differ, but generally it is recognized that somewhere between 12 and 19 percent of the US report having some form of disability.

Now, one out of five people is a lot, but let me ask you:

  • Do you or does someone you know wear glasses to read?
  • Have you ever been in a conference room 20 feet from the screen and had to increase the font size to be able to read?
  • Have you ever had the wonderful experience of your mouse dying and were forced to use only the keyboard to navigate?
  • Have you ever used a tablet on a non-mobile optimized website that you can't zoom and tried to use dropdown menus?
  • These are the things that don't get reported as a disability but are still instrumental to the definition about "access".

How do I get started?

You're reading this, so that's a great start! But seriously, it depends on where you are in the process and how far you want (or are required) to go. If you are a government agency, receive federal funds in any way or are a resource used by a federal agency then you should look into Section 508 compliance along with WCAG, preferably version 2.0 AA. If you are a private business then the ADA probably applies to you and although there isn't a specific law, we'd recommend looking into WCAG 2.0, at least A but preferably AA for a minimum.

For existing websites

If you already have a website but aren't ready for a complete overhaul I'd recommend running a couple of pages through an accessibility checker such as WAVE, this will do a great job of spotting some (hopefully) obvious problems regarding the structure of your site. There's a chance that just a couple of small, invisible tweaks could make your site much more accessible to a greater audience.

For new websites

Nip this one in the bud and plan ahead. The four WCAG principles should be very easy for everyone to understand, from management to development, and the 12 guidelines should be used as directions and recommendations throughout the content and development process. If you are building a responsive website (you are, right?) and are using a CMS (you are, right?) then many of these guidelines will be already taken into account for you.

All of this comes back to making your website "usable by as many people as possible". Your "people" might be "prospects," "customers," "clients," "employees" or "subscribers," but at the end of the day, they are seeking information from you, so why wouldn't you help them in any way possible?

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