Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights states that:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
As online interactions become an increasing part of everyday life, removing barriers to using the web for people with disabilities is an essential part of the movement towards ensuring equal access to information for all. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, nearly one in five Americans has some form of disability. Web accessibility concerns include multiple types of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical/motor, cognitive and neurological disabilities, as well as accessibility-related issues for senior citizens.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative has published two sets of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: WCAG 1.0 was released in 1999, and the current WCAG 2.0 was released in 2008. The governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and the UK have adopted WCAG 2.0 as the accessibility standard. In the US, federal agencies’ websites must comply with the Section 508 Rehabilitation Acts guidelines that are currently being updated to incorporate WCAG 2.0. (Rogers, 2012)
From a design standpoint, considerations of accessibility take multiple forms:
- Visual: Sites must be designed so that they can be read by screen reading programs, and graphics must have alternate text tags describing images. Video content should have transcripts available. Users should be able to adjust text size and color contrast.
- Auditory: Audio and video content should have closed captioning or transcripts available.
- Physical/Motor: Sites must be navigable without a mouse using voice or other alternate input devices.
- Neurological: Sites should avoid or allow users to bypass content that may cause seizures, such as strobing or flashing visual effects.
- Cognitive: Navigation and instructions should be clear and written in plain language. Images should relate to the text.
The WAI provides many resources for website creators to learn about and use the WCAG 2.0 guidelines in site design. Sections include an introduction to the concept of accessibility and why it is important, as well as suggestions for designing, writing, and developing inclusive and accessible websites.
Yet while the framework and resources for making sites accessible exist, and countries are increasingly enacting legislation and guidelines in support of accessibility, there are still barriers for people with disabilities accessing information online. Accessibility must be considered as an integral part of the design process, rather than designing the site and then trying to retrofit it into accessibility guidelines after the fact. Paul T. Jaeger, Director of the Master of Library Science program at the University of Maryland, suggests that the problem is in part one of framing, arguing that “the issue lies with governments, corporations, schools, and other institutions not taking the guidelines seriously. An articulation of these barriers to access in the human terms — the impacts on individuals of the lack of equality — may produce more interest in solving the problems than have been achieved thus far.” (Jaeger, 2015)
REFERENCES
Jaeger, P. T. (2015). Disability, human rights, and social justice: The ongoing struggle for online accessibility and equality. First Monday, 20(9-7), 1. doi:10.5210/fm.v20i9.6164
Rogers, M. (2012, November 13). Government accessibility standards and WCAG 2.0 [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.powermapper.com/blog/government-accessibility-standards/
United Nations. (n.d) Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
United States Census Bureau. (2012). Americans With Disabilities: 2010. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf
World Wide Web Consortium. (n.d.). Web Accessibility Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/WAI/
Reposted from the INFO 240 site blog.