Web Design for the Disabled
Why accessibility?
Many web designers may ask themselves why exactly they should consider web accessibility. Here are some briefly described reasons why this subject is worth considering.
The main reason for most designers is probably the moral, ethical motivation: it is good to treat everyone in an equal fashion. There are so many disabled people trying to live their life as "normal" as possible. It has often been estimated that over 80% of the disabilities experienced by people in our communities are invisible to the wider population; therefore it is not surprising most web site developers believe that very few people with disabilities use the Internet. It is extremely difficult if not impossible to guess the rate of disabled people using the web. The governments of countries like the UK, Canada, Australia and the United States report that the rate of disabled people, who are limited in everyday life, is around 20%. So it is probably safe to guess that approximately 10% of web users have a disability that affects their ability to use the web.
In today's community the use of the web is getting increasingly important. Many aspects of modern everyday life are influenced by the web and the many possibilities it contains: Banking transactions, reading the news, ordering books, sending messages by e-mail are just a small number of examples.
Accessible news on the web offers many options for their visitors. Readers can use their preferred user agent together with the implemented accessibility preferences, for example resizing the font size or adjusting contrasts to make the text more readable.
An accessible web can even help people with disabilities more actively participate in society. They can be contacted by e-mail, they can join online communities and they can get information about any desired subject without any assistance from other people.
Not many web designers know how to create accessible sites. This capability can also be used for advertising the personal skills and making a significant difference to the "regular crowd".
Regarding the economical perspective, new customers can be won, which would not be reached with an inaccessible site.
An often heard argument against considering the guidelines making web sites accessible, is that "most people use the Internet Explorer, why design for a small minority?". But another advantage of accessible design is, that it is compatible with emerging technologies. The use of the web is getting more and more wireless. Accessible sites are ready for the emerging technology, because they support the recommended web standards which future equipment is aiming to support, while others that where just optimized for the most common web browser will have to adapt to the new technologies.
Most techniques used to support accessibility will also help the average visitor, hardly ever harming others. A readable contrast with dark text on a light background is easier to read, even for healthy eyes.
The web offers many new options for people with disabilities. Today it is much easier for a blind person to read the newspaper. Before news were freely available on the world wide web, it was literally impossible for blind people to read the news. No news agency publishes their daily news in braille!