To better understand this topic, it is important to know some theoretical aspects in detail, such as what web accessibility really means, the guidelines or standards that govern it, the organizations involved, the tools for using and checking it, how it works in practice and all the advantages of having an accessible website.
What is web accessibility?
A website is accessible when users can access all of its information regardless of their abilities or knowledge.
Specifically, this means anyone can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the website.
More broadly, everyone should have universal access to the Web, regardless of hardware, software, network infrastructure, language, geographic location or user abilities.
This applies not only to people with disabilities but also to older people whose abilities or skills have declined with age.
The types of disability concerned are visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, neurological and speech-related.
An estimated 1 billion people worldwide have some form of disability, according to 2013 WHO data (15% of the world’s population).
In Spain, according to 2014 figures, more than 2.5 million people have a disability of 33% or more.
Is there a body that regulates it?
There is a web accessibility initiative known as the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative), developed by the W3C, whose main goal is to make access easier for people with disabilities by developing accessibility guidelines, improving tools for evaluating and repairing web accessibility, educating and raising awareness about the importance of accessible web design, and opening new areas of accessibility through research.
How does it work in practice?
To make web content accessible, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were developed, whose main purpose is to steer web page design toward accessibility, reducing barriers to information. WCAG consists of 14 guidelines offering design solutions, using as examples common situations where a page’s design can hinder access to information. The guidelines also include a series of checkpoints to help detect possible errors.
What do these accessibility guidelines involve?
In short, the guidelines set out the following:
- Provide equivalent alternatives for visual and auditory content.
- Ensure text and graphics are understandable when viewed without color.
- Use markup and style sheets correctly.
- Mark up language changes correctly.
- Create tables that transform gracefully.
- Check that pages are accessible with different software versions and when features are disabled.
- Moving content must have the option to be paused or stopped.
- The user interface must follow the principles of accessible design.
- Allow access and interaction regardless of the user’s input device (mouse, keyboard, voice, etc.).
- Use development formats that are accessible from all browsers and their earlier versions.
- Use W3C guidelines and guides.
Keep in mind that there are various software solutions and tools adapted for people with disabilities that convert content to speech, such as synthesizers, or braille reading systems, which is why there must be development standards that allow information to be correctly interpreted and translated.
How can you tell if a website is accessible?
A website is considered accessible if, due to the way it was developed, it is compatible with and supports special tools that interpret and translate information for people with disabilities.
These tools include screen readers, speech synthesizers, the keyboard, browser zoom and style sheets that can be interpreted and modified.
There are also validators that detect errors and classify them into different levels.
The best known are Taw and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) validator, which let us check the accessibility of our HTML and CSS code.
There are three levels for measuring a website’s accessibility: A, AA and AAA.
AA is recommended to ensure optimal accessibility; AAA guarantees greater accessibility but is also much more restrictive.
What are the advantages of an accessible website?
Beyond the social function of making a website’s content accessible to anyone with some degree of disability, there are other benefits that can be summed up as:
- Better search engine rankings.
- Better site quality and, as a result, faster response times.
- Improved usability.
- Lower, optimized development, maintenance and update costs.
- Access to other market segments, with the resulting commercial benefit.
- Legal compliance.
- Social responsibility.
At Trilogi we work to ensure our platform meets W3C standards and that content is technically accessible to anyone with any type of disability.
Is your website accessible?
Useful links:
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
