Accessibility is Boring!

Accessibility doesn't have to be boring. It can be simple and fun. Still, just the mention of accessibility makes some developers cringe.

What is accessibility? Accessibility in virtual spaces refers to making your place on the Web accessible to a wide audience. For example, many visitors have less-than-perfect vision. You can make your pages more accessible by using a few simple guidelines.

Who are the best candidates for developing accessible sites? We all are. We all want fast-loading Web pages that are easy to read and navigate.

If you want to welcome your visitors you may simply need to increase your font size. Yes, solutions can be that easy.

Colors and contrast are also important for both low-vision and color-blind visitors.

Developing for Different Abilities

Keep in mind that we don't expect you to put in a wheelchair ramp over the front steps to your house, just as we do not expect to be able to access every Blog or personal Home page.

Technical Books for the Experts

As low-vision developers we would like to cozy up to the fire and read a good book (Large Print) on designing for accessibility. We would like to have large-print technical books to read while we sit by the pool. We haven't found any technical books in large print.

Education and Training

Training companies and colleges do not provide large-print course materials, interpreters, or adequate time to prepare the equipment each morning before the course begins. In the area of Web accessibility we just aren't there yet, and it may take a while.

Usability Experts

The bragging rights for User Interface experts start at the end product -- the Web Page.

Technical books are not written for low-vision developers. They are not available in Large Print (LP) or Braille. We are still looking for just one.

Custom Style Sheets

Custom style sheets in the virtual world are like the buildings in the physical world that tout accessibility but require the disabled to knock on the back door to get in.

Don't expect the general public to know about customizing their own style sheet. They don't even know what a style sheet is. If you are a developer, it is your responsibility to take care of the details.

Learn by Reading

Large-print books in the area of Web development are difficult or impossible to find. We have not been able to find any written materials. The guides to accessibility are not published in large print or Braille.

Accessibility Option

Click Tools
    Internet Options
	  Accessibility 
         Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages.

See how your page looks when the visitor uses the he Ignore font size option. By the way, most of the sites and Blogs we visit work fine. It may not be the exact look you were going for but we can usually navigate it.

Background Color

Should you override our default? Sometimes the answer is yes, especially if you are displaying an image that is surrounded by white for spacing and you assumed a white background.

Then again, not specifying the colors works well. Yahoo! lets us do what we want. They don't mess with our default colors. On the other hand, Google uses a white background today. Most builders of Web sites do specify the background colors.

PDF Files

Sure, you say there is a magnifying glass but we can't find it. Even when we magnify the page the text is very difficult to read.

The Search for Perfection

A List Apart has some good information for getting started. But even their site fails us today. Most days it works fine. At least they try.

Testing

Backgrounds

Magnifying Glasses

We have to laugh.