| February, 2002 |
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Meeting the Needs of Every Web User
The struggle to find standards in the shifting sands of the Internet
Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act has been interpreted to mean that most of the information posted by the federal government and its suppliers must be accessible to all web site visitors. The recently published standards help define a checklist of supported features, but even now that they have been established, veteran web authors still disagree on how to meet the somehow un-standard “standard.”
The nature of the web is largely to blame for this uncertainty. Right now, the web is growing like a frontier town during the gold rush. Manufacturers and standards’ committees often argue openly about what “standard” web pages should support. Over time, most of the more creative improvements in web page coding have just been clever ideas created by Netscape and Microsoft to be used as new features in their browsers. In many cases, such new features have eventually been picked up by other software suppliers and accepted by standards’ committees. It should be pointed out too, that there are many other “clever” ideas that are ignored and never adopted for general use.
With all of this change, rules for accessibility that are clear and plain for typical arrangements of hardware and software may contradict those of some other common combinations. Any “obvious” methods may become obsolete in a matter of months after any number of new software releases.
Further confusing the situation for authors of government and other information loaded websites, is the reality that visitors from libraries, schools, and homes access these sites and often cannot afford to maintain the most current computer models, screen reading software, and other access technology. Tailoring a site to the most current standards creates access barriers for anyone who is “technology disadvantaged.”
Site designers, deeply involved in the latest technology, are often the least aware of this “technology gap.” This is all the more true when working with visually oriented graphic artists, who are attempting to make their sites the most visually exciting.
As browsers and plug-ins have evolved, more options and features have been added. Dynamic graphics, animation, video, and audio features have shown up on more and more sites vying for the attention of the wandering web visitor. Code markups that control the text size and color without allowing visitors to make text appear larger or with more visual contrast have become common. All-graphic menus (menus showing pictures of words, not the text of the words themselves), though generally the most graphically stimulating, are often illegible and unusable to the proposed five percent of visitors who cannot see or read web pages without some accommodation. Software not configured to use the latest graphics’ plug-ins can create further barriers to communicating information or accessing pages at all.
As you can see, creating accessible websites has become a frustrating and complex challenge.
How we got here
At the time of the earliest websites, universal access was an expected standard. Mozilla, the first web browser, was created to share scientific and engineering papers. It was designed to allow formatted text to be shared across the Internet—the way the formatting was displayed was left up to the user and the user’s software. Most computer users in 1993 whose computers were not wired to well connected internet sites, like government or educational institutions, connected to the Internet with only terminal (text based) access. They often used Lynx, a browser that read pages directly to the terminal. In fact, many blind users still use Lynx as a simple all-text access to the web.
Netscape was developed from earlier versions of Mozilla. It quickly distinguished itself from its predecessors by allowing images to be included on the page along with the text. In the beginning, since so many visitors to any page might be seeing the page in a text-only browser, most sites used photos as eye-candy; a little extra to augment the text on the page. Because of the slow connection speed of typical dial up connections, even sites that focused on graphics used plenty of descriptive words because the graphics were small and slow to show up on the screen.
Soon, adept graphics professionals developed techniques to outwit the built-in design of the web language to allow complex graphics to be laid out in flowing groupings wrapping in and around the text content. Tables (originally developed only to provide tabular information) were carefully manipulated to contain hidden grids of text and graphics. Users of older browsers often saw a jumbled mess.
As the web has become more popular, and modems faster, developers have begun using more and more graphic links. JavaScript allows graphics to flash in and out of existence, creating rollover behaviors and visual feedback. This, however, is difficult to share with a non-visually-oriented visitor. Plug-in extensions like Flash and Shockwave from Macromedia are added to produce animated line drawings on pages. In some cases, Flash graphics provide the entire navigation menu system throughout a site. Many of these visually oriented extensions aren’t provided with any method of offering a text-based equivalent.
Frames–commonly used today—are created to show several different pages in a grid-like array within the browser window. Late model browsers will often display frame pages in such a way that an average visitor would not even be aware of the breaks between each frame. Links in one frame can modify contents of that frame or any other. Visitors unable to see the entire screen at a glance find frame pages almost navigable.
Creating a Large Government-Sponsored Accessible Website
In 1994 the Maryland Technology Assistance Program began its effort to bring its information to the newly developed World Wide Web. Even before most Americans knew what the Web was, MDTAP was gathering files and back issues of its newsletter for “online publication.” My company, The Widget Works, a Baltimore based database development company, took on the task of systematically posting the years of back publications in hypertext format. At each step of the process, meeting the needs of all visitors was a primary concern.
We spent considerable time on research. We got to know every browser inside and out. We interviewed blind users and had screen reading software demonstrated. We consulted with everyone we could talk to in the MDTAP staff, each with their appreciable experience and point of view. Over time we have polished this site and improved our knowledge with the help of many comments from our visitors.
All taken into account, the primary guiding rules for a site like this are the same as any well designed website:
The design should be simple, with a series of branching choices. Nobody likes to be confused.
The site must have a clearly organized structure. Nobody likes to be lost.
Each link must be reasonably self-explanatory. People like to know where they will go when they choose a link, not to be dared to choose one.
Navigation must be accessible. Imagine your page without any images. Could you get around?
Support for plug-ins should be optional. This just makes good design sense. Excluding anyone from reading what is on your site reduces the number of people who can visit.
A couple of “special” rules round out the primary guidelines:
Images must be accessible. Images are of two kinds, content and non-content. Images that are part of the content must have tags or description files to describe their meaning to the page. Non-content images, or “eye candy,” must be tagged so that they are invisible to non-visual browsers.
Tables must be accessible. Tables used to show tabular information need to use “proper” conventions (described in the 508 guidelines). Tables used only to layout a page should be tagged to be invisible to non-visual browsers.
Whether in government, business, sales, or site design, accessible design makes sense. Spending a few percent more to increase your readership by five percent or more makes excellent sense!
Site designers should also keep in mind that the CEO’s of many companies have the oldest browser software in the building—who is going to “mess up” his or her computer by installing a more current version? Think about that while designing your next website to share public information, or to sell yachts!
Kevin Hunter is a computer consultant and web designer. He is part owner of The Widget Works in Fells Point, Baltimore, and provides services for Ximius Inc., which currently produces the MDTAP website.
