Accessibility Myths

Disabled people do not use the web, why bother?

The facts state that there are some 8.5 million people in the UK who have some form of disability. The RNIB estimate that a further 2 million have some sort of sight problem, ranging from mild to severe. This figure does not even include other groups with accessibility needs such as colour blindness, epilepsy, mobility problems, dyslexia or low literacy.

If you think about it, almost everyone faces some sort of disability at some point in his or her life. For example, a broken wrist would limit your ability to use a mouse, and a headache would lower your tolerance of flickering images and poorly contrasted colours.

Accessibility only benefits blind people

Eyesight problems and blindness are not the only forms of disability affecting people who use your website. Accessible pages work better for everyone who uses the web, not just those with a special need or limited ability. Making a site fully accessible can increase its usability dramatically.

You must provide text only pages on your site

If care is taken making your page accessible, a text only page is very rarely required. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend that only if after best efforts your site cannot be made accessible, should you even consider providing a text only version.

At RNIB, we recommend against providing a text only version as much as possible, simply because being treated differently can reinforce the feeling of marginalisation that someone with a disability experiences. From a business perspective it also leads to dual maintenance of content, which is far from ideal.

I will be prosecuted if my website is not made accessible by October 2004

Not necessarily a myth in itself, but there are a number of myths surrounding it. It is important to set a couple of facts straight here.

Some confusion exists around the date of October 2004. Some people think that there is a new piece of legislation coming into force which states websites should be accessible. This is not the case. The legislation coming into force in October 2004 is in fact the final part of the act that was implemented in 1996, and applies to the accessibility of physical spaces such as buildings. In fact, your website should have been made accessible since 1996.

Although the legislation has been place since 1996, and clearly states that websites must not discriminate against people with disabilities, there has been no case brought to test how the law will be interpreted and applied.

This does not mean that you should not take your responsibilities under the act seriously. What is clear is that website owners should have already begun to implement an accessibility programme, and should be seen to be making what the act refers to as "reasonable adjustments".

More information about the Disability Discrimination Act.

You cannot use images

Although for example, blind users cannot see your images, it would be pointless to disadvantage sighted users by not including graphics at all. In fact, graphics can enhance the accessibility of a website for people who have low levels of literacy, the elderly or children.

Adding a simple "alt" attribute to the image in the coding of the page can go a long way to helping your site become more accessible. The "alt" attribute can be used to insert a description of the contents of the image. This description will be read out to a blind person using a screen reader and even though they cannot see the image, they will have enough information to understand what is going on in it.

You have to use a large font

This is not necessary at all. If you use relative font sizes, someone who has a low level of vision can resize the text to suit their needs, and therefore you do not need to use big fonts.

Red and green cannot be used

Red and green are perfectly acceptable colours to use! Just do not use them alone to convey information. For example, a timetable which makes a statement such as "All trains highlighted in red have been cancelled" relies solely on the readers ability to perceive and distinguish colour. This could be simply fixed by saying "All trains that are highlighted in red and bold have been cancelled", that way someone who has difficulty distinguishing the colour red can look for the bold information.

Colour choice is more important than contrast

Both are equally important. It is important to have a flexible design that allows people to override the colours and backgrounds you have chosen.

Accessibility is time-consuming, expensive and very technical

Retro-fitting a site for accessibility can be all of the above, but ultimately these investments pay for themselves in terms of a greater customer base and a generally improved visitor experience. Building accessibility into the design and build of a new site is not necessarily time consuming and technical. You’ll find that it contributes to the usability of the site and cuts down on maintenance costs once the site is up and running.

Source :: Royal National Institute of the Blind

[ printer friendly version ]  [ top of page ]