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Definitions
Persons with disabilities are a natural audience for the Internet, given its availability and adaptability to assistive technology. According to the National Organization on Disabilities (www.nod.org), persons with disabilities increased their use of the Internet at twice the rate of people without disabilities (400% versus 200%) between December 1998 and June 2001. The share for persons with disabilities still lags those without (56% versus 38%), but the gap is closing quickly.
Disability Rates
Among people with disabilities:
- About 30 percent have limitations on their mobility
- 25 percent have limited use of their hands
- 16 percent have cognitive impairments
- 13 percent have impaired hearing
- 12 percent have visual impairment
- 4 percent have speech and language impairments
Source: "Maximum Accessibility," Slatin and Rush, p. 123, from Phill Jenkins, based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau (McNeil 2001)
Impairments affect how persons use websites and the Internet. Each description below is followed by a quick contextual check of site accessibility.
Mobility
Limited mobility is defined as a condition that limits one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting, or carrying. For those with impaired mobility, the Internet offers obvious benefits including online access to shopping, information, and communication. About 35 percent of persons with mobility limitations utilize the Internet, which is certain to increase as people become more comfortable shopping online.
The ability to interact with a website differs greatly, depending on the severity of the physical limitation, of course, and assistive equipment ranges from adjustable chairs and workstations to eye tracking devices that control cursors through eye movement and blinking. To check the accessibility of your site, see if you can fully meet your needs online, i.e., without using the phone, mailing something to the vendor, et cetera.
Limited Use of Hands
Persons with limited use of their hands range from those who use a keyboard instead of a mouse to those unable to use either. To provide accessibility to people who have limited use of their hands, websites need large clickable areas, logical tabbing order, and accesskeys based navigation. To check accessibility, try navigating through your site using only your keyboard.
Cognitive Impairments
Persons with cognitive impairments (such as: dyslexia, dyscalculia, and auditory perception difficulties) benefit from short, discrete units of information. State the topic at the beginning of the sentence or paragraph, use simple sentence structure, and provide headings. This will also benefit scanning for those not impaired. For a quick check of accessibility, see if you are able to understand page content by reading the page title, headings and first sentences of paragraphs.
Impaired Hearing
Persons who are deaf or hard of hearing benefit from the visual nature of websites. A hearing disability requires that captioning or visual equivalent be provided whenever audio provides relevant information. MAGpie is a popular and free program from NCAM (ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/magpie/) that creates captions in both PC and Mac formats for the three most widely used media players. Check your website by turning off the sound and seeing if you can understand content (especially for movies and Flash animation).
Visual impairments include a variety of conditions, including color-blindness, low vision, partial or total blindness, macular degeneration, cataracts, et cetera. For examples of how people with visual impairments see the world go to the Vischeck website (www.vischeck.com). Persons with visual impairments use a variety of devices, often in combination, including screen enlargers (Magic), screen readers (JAWS, WYNN), combination reader/enlargers (Kurzweil), and refreshable braille displays. To evaluate accessibility using adaptive technology there are a variety of tools and techniques you can use.
Speech and Language Impairments
The Internet facilitates accessibility for those with speech and language impairments because it can provide a text-based media for communication. Persons for whom English is a second language also benefit from captioning and near-instant access to dictionaries and learning tools. It is important, however, to speak in the idiom of your target audience. This not only creates a better basis for establishing a relationships with them, it also increases their comprehension. Always review the content of your site from the standpoint of your users: does it make sense, is it comprehensible, does it fit their expectations?
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