{"id":7572,"date":"2018-10-04T16:38:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T20:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.brainstation.io\/?p=7572"},"modified":"2019-04-24T15:59:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T19:59:08","slug":"what-is-web-accessibility-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/blog\/what-is-web-accessibility-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it","title":{"rendered":"What Is Web Accessibility and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It should have been simple: a colorful map filling the screen, and a legend off to one side where each color is linked to a page with more information. But for the life of me, I can\u2019t tell these shades apart. Is Italy green or purple? Or maybe pink? As beautiful as it is, this map is essentially useless to me. But is it the map\u2019s fault, or mine? <\/span><\/p>\n

Like roughly one in 12 men, I\u2019m colorblind. And while scenarios like the one above don\u2019t come up very often, they\u2019re incredibly frustrating when they do \u2014 especially since they\u2019re easily avoidable. For people with more profound disabilities, though, web accessibility<\/a> is not just a question of annoyance. It can affect their ability to view online content at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

Altering or enriching your content to make it available to as many people as possible is at the heart of web accessibility (often abbreviated as \u201ca11y\u201d, with \u201c11\u201d standing in for the eleven letters it replaces). Quite often this means adding alternative options for viewing or navigating content \u2014 but what sounds simple in principle can prove complex in practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider users who lack the fine-motor control it takes to use a mouse. To accommodate these users, you should make it possible to navigate throughout your website using only a keyboard \u2014 no mouse. But accomplishing this isn\u2019t just a technical exercise; it\u2019s a design exercise as well since you\u2019ll need to organize your tabbed fields in such a way that linear, keyboard-driven navigation is intuitive, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

This example only scratches the surface of what web accessibility includes. As an Accessibility Consultant,\u00a0<\/span>Luke McGrath<\/span> writes, \u201cDisability on the Internet includes things like problems with sight, problems with using a mouse or keyboard, problems with hearing, and problems with reading and understanding. But web accessibility also helps people who have a slow Internet connection, have a small screen or unusual device, can\u2019t listen to sound at work, or are using an old web browser or operating system.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, accessibility takes into consideration the limitations of your users, as well as the technology that mediates your content and even the context in which they access it.\u00a0<\/span>Fortunately, there\u2019s an international standard for web accessibility that provides clear guidance on the fundamentals. <\/span><\/p>\n

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines<\/b><\/h2>\n

Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, the <\/span>Web Content Accessibility Guidelines<\/span><\/a> (or WCAG) first launched in 1999. Version 2.0 followed in 2008, and the latest update, version 2.1, was released in June of this year. <\/span><\/p>\n

These guidelines are comprehensive, providing standards for content (the text, images, and videos that the user sees), as well as the code or markup that defines the way a site looks, which helps to make even website backends more accessible. <\/span><\/p>\n

The WCAG is, therefore, a useful guide for content developers (including page authors and site designers) and anyone developing tools for web authoring or for evaluating web accessibility, or anyone looking for an accessibility standard \u2014 even something as generalized as mobile accessibility. <\/span><\/p>\n

That covers what web accessibility includes and how it\u2019s assessed, but the question remains: why invest in web accessibility at all?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why You Need to Invest in Web Accessibility<\/b><\/h2>\n

For some, WCAG compliance is a legal requirement. All government sites in the US, Canada, the EU, and a host of other regions, must be WCAG compliant by law, and for that reason alone, it\u2019s a valuable skill to master. And while meeting the WCAG standards isn\u2019t legally required for non-governmental sites, it\u2019s still best practice for several reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first is obvious: inaccessible content cuts out a large section of your audience. According to the latest US census, <\/span>nearly 19 percent of Americans<\/span><\/a> have some type of disability, many of which affect what a user can do online. When you fail to accommodate these users, you lose customers and income.<\/span><\/p>\n

And accessibility doesn\u2019t exist inside a vacuum. The same issues involved with making content accessible also arise when you\u2019re dealing with everyday user experience design issues, or when optimizing for mobile users, managing multimodal interaction, designing for older users, and implementing SEO best practices. No wonder, then, that improved accessibility has been shown to <\/span>extend audience reach and reduce maintenance costs.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

That second effect\u2014lower maintenance costs\u2014hints at the second reason why accessibility is best practice: poor accessibility makes it difficult for a company\u2019s own employees (who also rely on both the front and back ends of its site) to do their jobs. Every accessibility speed bump employees encounter in the course of work leads to delays and mistakes, which lower your overall efficiency as a business and cost you money.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third, poor accessibility suggests that not all of your customers are equally important \u2014 which sends an unintended message about you as an institution, even to people with no accessibility issues. By contrast, a fully accessible site sends the message that social inclusion is part of your corporate values, which in turn factors into everything from sales to your ability to recruit and hire top talent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Web Accessibility Is Good Design<\/b><\/h2>\n

Given its many advantages, why is making online content accessible only now gaining prominence among many developers? For one thing, web accessibility is tied to growing awareness of (and sensitivity to) diversity. Social inclusion is a concern that reaches far beyond the web and its content, and the movement toward better web accessibility is just part of that broader conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parallel to this is a growing emphasis on good design\u2014a trend that has been building for years and shows no sign of stopping. As the leaders of corporations from Apple to Dyson to Google recognize the premium that thoughtful design adds to their products, hire chief design officers and invest in R&D, the design of our everyday world is growing from a niche concern to virtually every category of consumer goods. The result is an improved user experience for <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But just as importantly, well-designed accessible web content needs the right technology to execute it. If websites in the \u201990s were as horrible to use as they were to look at, at least some of the blame can be placed on the limitations of the technology at the time. Today, no such excuse exists: new software, hardware, and web standards make it possible to achieve better design and better accessibility. All that remains is for us to learn how to harness those tools.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Learn more with BrainStation’s Web Accessibility certificate courses<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many of us, web accessibility is not something we think about, until a problem arises. That, however, is starting to change. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[586],"tags":[588,589,587,590,591],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Is Web Accessibility and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Keep hearing about web accessibility but not sure what it means? 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