A Web Without Barriers
by Beth Archibald Tang
In the grand scheme of things, good web design is cool.
June 26, 2000
Accessibility and usability are two of the many important concerns for web developers. Accessibility means that web sites are barrier-free to everyone and open to individuals regardless of their disabilities. Usability means that web sites are easy to use. Both accessibility and usability are powerful indicators of an understanding of universal design. They reflect positively on web developers and their clients, as well as lead to increased numbers of satisfied web customers.
Accessibility
While accessibility may be conceptually linked to disability, accessibility also means that people with older modems and earlier versions of browsers can use the web site equally as well as people with the latest hardware, software, and Internet connections. Consider building ramps, which are intended for people in wheelchairs. Those who have difficulty navigating steps or who are pushing a baby-stroller can also take advantage of the ramps. While the ramps were installed to comply with legal requirements, they are beneficial for a wider audience, too.
In ancient times, web "development" was converting and posting pretty brochureware. The sites were dead ends and did not do much. They used the latest software so that the company would seem to be a leader among its peers. Much of the software required plug-ins or otherwise left out a large portion of the online community.
As web developers and their clients became more sophisticated, consideration of the user/customer found its place. Web pages that only showed products and talked abstractly about services are now transformed into portals and shopping carts.
If appearing favorably online does not capture management's attention, then the law might. While it does look good to demonstrate accessibility with alt tags and Bobby approval, accessibility in some cases is a legal requirement.
Now That We Have Your Attention
In the United States, there has been recent discussion around the topic of Section 508. It pertains to the Access Board's proposed federal guidelines for procurement of accessible information technology (IT) for US federal employees and citizens with disabilities. IT in this case includes fax machines, photocopiers and web sites. What is unusual about Section 508 is that it allows for individuals to sue for damages, not just action to fix accessibility problems. Burden is placed on the federal agencies to retrofit web pages. (See my commentary in Federal Computing Weekly on accessibility and undue burden.)
Some requirements of Section 508 were adopted from the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative; for example, access to information should be provided in alternate ways, such as:
- using title, longdesc, and image descriptions (d links) for images and content
- ncorporating transcripts for audiovisual content
Documents should be provided in alternate formats as well.
Web accessibility requires that web designers not only use alt tags but also carefully craft the tag text so that users will be alerted to the fact that the graphic also serves a navigational purpose.
- Image only: <img src="images/image2.gif" alt="Accessibility Makes Good Business Cents!">
- Navigational image: <img src="images/image2.gif" alt="Link to the Accessibility Makes Good Business Cents! Catalog" longdesc="dlink/index.htm">
It is important users know that links exist!
In addition to Bobby, mentioned earlier, these sites provide more information about accessibility:
http://www.trace.wisc.edu/
http://www.va.gov/accessible/disvetres.html
http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/cita/
Usability
Usable web sites demonstrate inclusiveness, intuitiveness, and commonsense, like elevators that both audibly announce and visually display floor numbers. Successful web developers concerned with enhancing the users' experience grok that task completion is the business of web business. Jakob Nielsen's usability principles and one's own commonsense say that the inability to complete a task leads to dissatisfaction, incomplete transactions, and thus commerce suffers.
In a usable site, customers easily intuit navigation and become efficient users. To know if the site is truly usable, it is imperative to give sample tasks to a few users from the target audience. Success is evidenced by how easily they find information and avoid errors. The web usability study is worth the time and expense, but it need not be expensive. The important thing is that the effort insures that users spend more time on your site and less time being frustrated.
For more information about usability, these sites are a goldmine for web developers:
htttp://www.usableweb.com/
http://www.webword.com/
http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/
http://www.creativegood.com/newsletter.html
So what
Accessibility and usability are not major concerns? If users with or without disabilities cannot use a site, so what? Nielsen estimates that about 90% of business-oriented web sites suffer from usability issues. Moreover, a recent Harris Poll surveyed Americans with and without disabilities and found that people with disabilities spend twice as much time on the Internet as people without disabilities. It is hard to estimate what percentage of the worldwide online population does have a disability, but why ever would a business cut itself off from a new customer base, and one that wants to be online?
Finally
Web developers can take the initiative and be cool. They can be on the leading edge. They can be pioneers.
Barrier-free design and usability testing help to open doors to more customers. With a little foresight and careful planning, web developers will end up with a site that even "regular" visitors will find easier to use, faster to download, and therefore more frequently visited. It all comes down to the bottom line and designing for accessibility and usability makes good business sense on so many different levels. Just ask the proud web team at IBM about their 400% increase in sales after a their recent ten-week redesign effort.
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