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Designing Web Sites for Maximum Market Accessibility
By Ronald E. Milliman, PhD, Professor of Marketing, Western
Kentucky University
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Ronald E.
Milliman
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Among Web site designers, the issue of Web site accessibility has
become a very controversial topic. Because of poor design, it is
estimated that up to 40% of the potential market is not able to
fully access most Web sites, taking into consideration various disabilities
and wireless devices that have limited Web browsing capabilities.
While the needs of wireless device users are being addressed to
some degree, the needs of most disability groups are being largely
ignored.
It is estimated that there are up to 54 million people in the United
States (with a disposable income of approximately $1 trillion),
and another 750 million persons world-wide, with various disabilities
whose full access to the Web is limited because of poor, non-compliant
Web design (NCD #01-326, May 18, 2001, http://www.ncd.gov). For
example, a blind or visually impaired person needs to have access
to the text and images shown on the computer’s monitor in order
to be able to fully assess the site. As our population ages, the
number of persons encountering such challenges is getting larger.
Legal Considerations
Federal, state, and local governments have initiated legislation
in the USA requiring computer technology to be accessible to people
with disabilities. Other countries have established regulations
that mandate accessibility at some level, or they are in the process
of developing them. In addition, international standards organizations
have been working to develop accessibility standards.
The legal interpretation of various Federal laws and regulations
(e.g. Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998) has placed
considerable pressure on Web designers of all government entities
and firms desirous of doing business with the Federal government
to make their Web sites fully accessible. Not only is it morally,
ethically, and socially desirable to design fully accessible Web
sites, but from a legal standpoint, to minimize the possibility
of being sued, all Web designers for firms, large and small, private
or public, for-profit or not-for-profit, must deal with this issue
of Web accessibility.
How Serious is the Design Problem?
The question of just how serious is this issue of non-compliant
Web design was examined by a recent research project which investigated
1080 firms in the private sector. It revealed that even after the
initiation of Federal Regulation Section 508 on June 21, 2001, and
the adoption of access related laws by many states, the problem
of poor Web site design still existed (Working Paper Series: http://www.in-the-works.com/wkgpprs/milliman032544.html).
One major question this study attempted to answer is: What proportion
of firms, excluding government entities, have compliant Web sites?
All of the Web sites of the firms selected in the initial sample
of 1080 were tested using "Bobby." Bobby is a tool that
helps Web page authors identify needed changes to their pages so
users with disabilities can more easily use their Web sites. This
study found that of the 1080 firms, only 19, or 1.76%, had compliant
Web sites, meaning 1061, or 98.24%, failed the Bobby test. Among
the for-profit compared to the not-for-profit firms, 2 (out of 63)
and 5 (out of 89) were compliant according to Bobby.
These results would seem to signify a very significant non-compliance
problem. What are some of the basic steps designers can take to
make their Web sites more compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C, a major standards body, has issued draft guidelines for designing
browsers, multimedia players, and other Web-based user interfaces),
and Section 508, ensuring greater accessibility for persons with
disabilities as well as wireless device users?
Recommendations to Designers for Making Sites
Accessible
The following recommendations will greatly facilitate access for
many people with various disabilities and for most wireless device
users. However, it must be emphasized that these recommendations
are not all-inclusive by any means, but following them will make
most Web site designs very accessible:
- Avoid using frames.
Frames are much more difficult for screen readers used by blind
and sight disabled persons, and search engines do not like them
either, so they are best avoided. A better alternative would be
to use uncomplicated tables or style sheets.
- Offer a “text only” design of all pages in your
site.
Text only pages are much easier for screen readers used by the
sight disabled or for people who have their graphics turned off
or Javascript disabled, etc.
- Avoid using blinking or flashing text and graphics.
The use of blinking or flashing in your pages can trigger seizures
in some people. It has even been known to stimulate seizures in
people that had never had a seizure before.
- Use alt tags to briefly describe all graphics.
Alt tags should ALWAYS be used to describe a graphic, e.g. a picture
of Washington crossing the Delaware River would be coded as: <img
src="images/gw1" height "200" width="200"
alt="Photo of George Washington crossing the Delaware River"
border="0">.
- All link tags should have title tags.
When coding links, always include a title tag which can be read
by screen readers and also appear on mouseover for others, e.g.
<a href="http://www.georgewashington.com" title="Site
to learn more about George Washington">Go here to learn
more about George Washington.</a>
- Use a long description for alt tags longer than a few words.
The LONGDESC attribute: The “official” way to
provide long descriptions of images is to use the LONGDESC attribute
in the IMG tag. This attribute is a link to a separate page, on
which the longer description can be found.
The concept behind the LONGDESC attribute is sound, but browser
support—and even assistive technology support—is often
lacking. For the most part, this tag cannot be currently considered
practical, because it doesn’t work on most current technologies,
even if it is the “right” way to do things. We can expect
technologies to support the tag in the future.
The “D” link: The “D” link has been
in use for several years, and serves the same purpose as the LONGDESC
tag. A “D” link consists of putting the letter “D”
(which stands for description) after the image, and making it
a link which goes to a separate page which contains the longer
description of the image. The drawback to using a D link is that
visual users will see the “D,” which may distract from
the visual appeal of the Web page. The perceived “ugliness”
of “D” links can be a deterrent to their use. Still,
their benefits may outweigh their drawbacks if they are the only
means of accessing the information for those who are blind.
- Use empty double quotes ("") for alt tags which
do not need a description.
Spacer images and other images that do not convey anything important,
such as a tiny graphic in place of a button on a list, do not
need an alt tag description, but it is always best to code it
as follows: <img scr="spacer.gif" height="1"width="24"alt=""
border="0">
- Use colors with high contrast to the background.
In general, pages with a dark backgrounds and light text are more
easily read by low vision persons and those who are color blind.
- Validate and validate again!
Use validators such as: http://validator.w3.org/
and also use a backward compatibility viewer such as: http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html,
and test with various attributes turned off such as images, tables,
and style sheets.
- Check pages for color-blind accessibility.
Use a program such as: http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/
to check pages for color-blind accessibility. Roughly 1 in 10
men are fully or partly color blind. People with color blindness
generally can see most colors; they just have trouble distinguishing
between some shades of red and green.
- Use italics sparingly if at all.
Italics, particularly in small font sizes, are hard for many people
to read. Using a bolded font, for instance, or a different color
to emphasize a word or phrase may be the better way to go.
- Avoid pop ups.
While pop ups are annoying to most everyone, and can cause a lot
of people to just skip over a site which uses them, they are particularly
challenging, if not nearly impossible, for people with certain
disabilities to work with, especially those using screen readers.
- Use skip links coding for top or side links.
A navigation bar is often the first thing that is seen on a page.
For screen reader users, this usually means having to hear a large
number of repeated links on every page before they arrive at any
unique content or the main essence of the page. Providing a link
that will skip over these repetitive links and allow the user
to start reading at the beginning of the main body of the page
provides task and time efficiency for the user. They can now navigate
the page effectively and with considerably less tedium. Skip links
can be visible or invisible. For more information see: http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre/Infocentre?page=article&id=150
- Links that open in a new window should have a warning.
Just simply saying: “This link will open in a new window”
is sufficient.
- Do not use Java if it can be avoided!
Java is challenging for many screen readers. If you must use java,
consult: "IBM Accessibility Center: Guidelines for Writing
Accessible Applications Using 100% Java" (http://www-3.ibm.com/able/snsjavag.html#main).
- Avoid using Flash.
Flash is another technique that is not read easily by many screen
readers. Again, if you must, consult Macromedia’s Accessibility
Resource Center (http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/).
- Multimedia presentations should always be captioned and described.
With many of the multimedia formats, content can be made available
to ALL users. Multimedia implies more than one sensory communication
mode is being used. Instead of alternatively shutting out different
disability groups, descriptions or captions can be used to convey
the basic information to include everyone. For instance, deaf
users cannot understand the sound tracks of multimedia files unless
transcripts are provided. More information can be had at: http://www.webaim.org/howto/captions/
- Do not use just the words “Click Here” by themselves.
If this phrase is in association with a symbol or graphic, then
a blind person would have no idea what "click here"
meant or what they would be clicking on. Use more descriptive
phrases such as: "Click here to go to the Access Workshop,”
“Link to go to the Access Workshop,” etc. Then, make
the entire phrase the active link.
Conclusion
While a very small number of organizations currently have Web sites
accessible to various disability groups and wireless users, it should
be evident that it takes little additional effort to comply with
the accessibility guidelines. Most all of the latest Web design
programs, such as Dreamweaver, have accessibility tools and features
built into them, thus, making it even easier to design accessible
Web pages.
Dr. Ronald E. Milliman is Professor of Marketing
at Western Kentucky University (http://www.wku.edu/~millire)
and is also totally blind. Dr. Milliman has a consulting business
that specializes in Internet marketing solutions and accessible
Web site designs (http://www.a3businesssolutions.com).
October 2002 eBulletin
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