I got into a discussion last week with Susan Bellomo, a CC in New Mexico
who is working professionally with blind computer users, and obtained some
information from her on making web pages accessible to everyone. Now that
things seem to be calming down a bit, I thought this might be worth
bringing to your attention. I realize that redoing pages to provide
text-only options requires time, something that's in short supply for most
of us, but it's something to think about for the future.
All the following text is from Susan:
My Windows user has a screen reader that speaks the words on
the Netscape 3.01 screen (he wears a headset) when his mouse
moves over them. Frames are not navigable for him. Graphics
that are links must also have text links. His reader will announce
"link" when the mouse is over a graphics link. Not too helpful.\
For the graphics on my page, I code alternate text.
<img src="f4.gif" alt="modem icon">
That way, he knows what pictures accompany the text.
The reader starts at the left margin and reads to the right margin.
Tables are just one long string of text. Thus, if tabular data
is organized in columns instead of rows, it is very difficult for
him to sort. I'm using spreadsheets as much as possible.
Excel has a feature that allows me to convert them to Acrobat
files (which he can't read--the computer treats them as graphics),
or html. I can use color in the cell background to add some
design interest, serve Acrobat files to sighted visitors, and
provide either html or native Excel files for him. His reader
can access a spreadsheet cell by cell.
The lynx user can access a wider variety of constructs more
easily. However, graphics, frames, ISMAPs (graphics with
multiple links in different regions of the picture or photo)
are still inaccessible to him.
Deaf users have no use for sound files, which are often
large and create problems for machines with insufficient
memory to load.
This is just a sample. When I'm in doubt as to whether
these guys can use something, or I see something on the
'Net that we haven't considered, I send them the URL to
try. If they have difficulty with the page, sometimes, I'll
visit their offices and do a usability walkthrough while
I take notes. It teaches me what I can use to make my
information available to everyone. We politely let Web
authors know when we encounter something that doesn't
allow easy access.
She also included some web links on accessible design:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/
W3CWAI [Web Accessibility Initiative] Page Author Guidelines Working
Group
http:/trace.wisc.edu/docs/html_guidelines/htmlgide.htm
HTML Guidelines link
http:/trace.wisc.edu/world/web/
General Web Access Link
http:/www.lcc.gatech.edu/gallery/dzine/access/
Accessible Web Design Guidelines Link
http:/www.yuri.org/webable
Accessible Web Information Link
http://www.esrin.esa.it:8080/handy/om/distr/doc/uk_w3access.html
Web Accessibility Article Link
http:/www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/dmd/access/welcome1.htm
Web Access Evaluation Tools
Elizabeth Harris
ncgen(a)mindspring.com
state coordinator for NCGenWeb:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgenweb/