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What Is Web Accessibility?

The idea behind web accessibility is that anyone who visits a web site should be able to navigate and interact efficiently with that site and have full access to its content. Traditionally this idea has referred primarily to individuals with disabilities, who may operate computers using technologies other than the traditional three input/output devices (monitor, mouse, and keyboard). However, more and more users with and without disabilities are migrating away from these traditional three devices. For example, consider that millions of people are now accessing the web using iPhones and other handheld devices. Also, companies are pouring research and development money into web-enabling automobiles through hands-free speech/audible interfaces. These and other technologies are resulting in a much larger audience of people who are impacted by web accessibility.

Regarding individuals with disabilities, consider that:

Individuals who are blind are unable to access images so if images contain informative content, that content needs to alternatively be available as text.
Individuals with low vision may need to enlarge the font using standard browser functions. When they do so, a web site should still be readable.
Individuals with fine motor impairments may be unable to use a mouse, so a web site needs to be operable using keyboard alone (e.g., by tabbing through the items on a page).
Individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing are unable to access audio content, so video needs to be captioned and audio needs be transcribed.

These are just a handful of examples. There are guidelines and standards that define web accessibility, the most comprehensive of which is the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The current official version, WCAG 1.0, includes 65 very detailed checkpoints but was finalized in 1999 and is therefore highly HTML-centric and beginning to show its age. The W3C is currently working on an update, WCAG 2.0, which is currently a working draft but is nevertheless quite informative, although perhaps a bit daunting for folks who are new to web accessibility.

In addition to the WCAG, the federal government passed a law in 1998 (Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act) that resulted in a set of simplified, legally-enforcable web accessibility standards. These are explained, with examples, in an official Guide to the Standards.

Another excellent resource for learning about web accessibility is WebAIM, an organization based at Utah State University that has developed an extensive collection of accessibility-related resources for web developers of all levels of accessibility expertise. Their Introduction to Web Accessibility is especially a good place to start.

You can also pick up a few tips from the current site. I've documented its accessbility features on page titled (what else?) Accessibility Features.

The Hidden Benefits of Web Accessibility

As a web developer, you are probably motivated to practice accessible design solely by the desire to serve all customers. If someone has stopped by your site they are probably interested in you, your product, your service, your ideas, or whatever you're offering, and you'd like to keep them interested, not slam the door in their face and deny them entry. However, if that isn't enough, there are also other good reasons to practice accessible design:

Leaner pages. Accessible web pages tend to be leaner pages, and therefore download much more quickly, which is good for the millions of users in the United States, and far more throughout the world, who are still connecting to the Internet using dial-up connections.
Easier maintenance. Accessible web pages tend to be easier to maintain. They comply with standards and are not bloated with unnecessary code, which makes much easier and more cost effective to find and make changes to content.
Better placement in search engine rankings. The cliché among web accessibility professionals is that "Google is the world's largest blind user". If searchbots are unable to access your content, then your site is not optimized as well as it could be for high placement in search engine results. This has always made sense to me, but I never had clear evidence of its truth until a recent conversation I had with a web developer at a major research university. He claimed that his university's home page had appeared on the fourth page or lower in Google search results when people searched for broad terms like "university". However, that all changed when they rolled out a standards-compliant, accessible version of their site. Suddenly they were thrust to the first page in search results. Of course, there are many other factors that affect search engine optimization, but accessibility seems to help.
Possibility of more robust features. A good example of this is a hidden benefit that accompanies closed captioning of videos. If videos include closed captions, they not only provide access to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearding, but the captions can be searched. Since search has become such an integral tool for people in navigating between and within web sites, enabling users to search both video and text provides full searchable access to all content, which is great for everyone.

My Recommendations for Web Developers

If you're trying to make an existing web site accessible, my recommendation is that you strive initially for compliance with the Section 508 standards. As noted earlier these are not as comprehensive as the full set of WCAG guidelines, but you have to start somewhere, and Section 508 provides an attainable goal. Once Section 508 compliance is attained, you should of course look at other steps you can take to build upon and maximize the accessibility of your site.

If you're starting from scratch, it's important to consider accessibility early, as you're contemplating and planning your site design. Here's the approach I take to any web design project:

Identify the purpose and goals of the site. What content and features are you hoping to provide, and for whom?
With purpose and goals in mind, develop an overall site outline or tree.
Develop an outline of each page so that it is well structured with headings, subheadings, lists, paragraphs, etc. A well-defined structure is critical for accessibility (and for search engine optimization). Think long and hard about where all content fits within the structure of the page. For example, if you're imagining a horizontal menu bar on every page, take a step back and recognize that menu simply as an unordered list of links. You can position and decorate it later, but at this phase you should focus solely on structure.
Populate each page of your site with content. Preserve the structure using relevant markup within HTML or XHTML. For example, use <H1>, <H2>, etc. to markup headings; identify lists using list-related markup, etc. Be sure the HTML or XHTML is valid using the W3C Markup Validation Service. Be sure that all content is accessible according to the guidelines and standards described above.
If more advanced features are required (e.g., Web 2.0 -type enhancements), add these after a core, accessible design is in place. These features can supplement exisiting content, but should not be used as the sole means of providing content since this will result in the exclusion of many users. Accessibility techniques for dynamic web applications are a work in progress, but as usual the W3C is on it. A good place to start in understanding Web 2.0 accessibility is the W3C's Roadmap for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA). Don't use these technologies just because you think they're cool. Consider whether your site truly needs them in order to be useful and functional. If the answer is "yes", devote some time to understanding the accessibility implications and deploy these features in ways that are as accessible as possible.

Need Help?

The best accessibility expert for your project is you. Learn all you can about web accessibility, practice accessible design and development, and include specific accessibility requirements in your contracts for outside delopment. Since your web site is probably not a static creation and will continue to evolve, the best and most cost-effective strategy for ensuring that your site is and continues to be accessible is to develop the necessary expertise. My goal is for all web developers in the world to understand accessibility and apply it. Then nobody needs the likes of me and I can focus my energy on making music.

However, if you need assistance prior to reaching that point, feel free to drop me a line.