Accessibility

Accessibility is a field of study and work that has the goal of making the world more accessible to people that have disabilities (visual, hearing, cognitive, and physical).

Because the internet is a vast source of information, it is especially important that it is made accessible. Web accessibility specialist is a very important job title in the process of making the internet more accessible and is an evergrowing field.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and are widely regarded internationally as the most authoritative source of web accessibility guidelines around the world. The WCAG 2.0 guidelines are technology-agnostic, meaning that the authors intended the guidelines to be applicable across all current and future web technologies: HTML, PDF, Java, Flash, Silverlight, video players, and so on.

The 4 Main Principles

The main accessibility principles identified in WCAG are:

1. Perceivable
Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. [Ensure content is accessible to people who are blind and/or deaf.]
2. Operable
User interface components and navigation must be operable. [Make sure all features are accessible by keyboard; not just by mouse.]
3. Understandable
Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
4. Robust
Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

Examples of web accessibility items include, adding the alt text attribute to images, captions to videos, zoomable text sizes, color contrast, and keyboard control.

Accessibility in Uganda

The Ugandan ministry for information and communication is drafting it's disability policy that includes provisions to make the web more accessible. From a draft of information and communication technology accessibility Guideline:
"The goal of web accessibility policy should be to remove barriers persons with disabilities face in using websites. For example, people who are blind or with low vision require websites that are compatible with screen readers that read text aloud; provide text alternatives for images which describe images; allow for resizing of text, images and page layouts and provide alternative web navigation aids. People who are deaf or hard of hearing will require captions for any content that is spoken, including videos, media players and web applications (apps). People with mobility disabilities may require additional time to complete tasks on a website and streamlined and keyboard-only compatible navigation mechanisms and page functions allowing use of alternative input devices."

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