Nice2All.com

Website accessibility is not something that can be fully checked or validated by some or other automated process . At most these tools can check our pages against some of the accessibility checkpoints. Most of the checking still has to be done manually.

photo credit: Arnþór Snær

I often get asked just what these manual checks should include.

This is not an easy question to answer unless I tell you that you have to check your pages against each and every accessibility standard. Many people do not understand the technical jargon used in the standards themselves and most do not have the time to follow this advice.

Let me try and ease this situation by telling you what I would check on my web pages:

Cross-browser capabilities
Simply open your pages in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera if you can (any two of these would suffice). Check that your pages actually appear and act the way you expect them to in all the different browsers you have available.

Links clearly described
If the wording in the actual link is not clear enough you need to make use of the title attribute to describe each link. Links like ‘click here’ should be avoided at all times, they are meaningless.

Working Links
Do all your links actually work? Does clicking them take you to the page you expect them to?

New windows
If you have to use ‘new windows’ do you warn your users about this fact?

Keyboard navigation
Can your pages be navigated without using a mouse. If you cannot do this neither can any keyboard or voice-only user.

Text re-sizing
I am not speaking about changing the screen resolution or using some or other maginifying software. Can the text on your pages be re-sized within the browser itself? All browsers have implemented this functionality differently so you will have to play around to find out how your favourite browser has implemented it.

Forms accessibility
Checking forms is a simple task. Simply click on any label on your form. If your form has been coded correctly this will put the focus inside the relevant control next to the label you have clicked. To do this you need to make use of the label element.

Audio content
If you have some kind of audio content on your pages let’s pretend that you are deaf for a minute. Turn off your speakers. Does this content make sense to you now? You need to provide alternative transcripts for all your audio content.

Another one to remember here is that you must check to see that you are not forcing any audio content onto the user by playing the audio automatically. A user should have the option of turning the audio on and/or off.

Alternatives to graphics
Here we need to remember that not all browsers support images. Some users also prefer to browse without images even though their browser may support them.

The trick to images is the use of the Alt attribute. Whatever you set in these is what a user will see (or hear) if images are turned off for whatever reason.

You have to differentiate between images that actually convey some form of content and images that are used purely for decorative purposes. If the image is part of the content you need to tell the user via the Alt attribute what the image is all about. If the image is there purely to make your pages look pretty you need to use an empty Alt attribute (alt=”"). Browsers that do not support images will ignore images that have an empty Alt attribute set and the user will never even know the image was there. Never leave the Alt attribute out completely.

Check spelling
Now what has this got to do with accessibility? If your spelling on your pages is incorrect the so-called speaking browsers will pronounce the words incorrectly.

Blind users
A quick and free way of interacting with your site the way a blind user would is to view your pages through the Lynx Viewer.

Site map
If users get lost on your site you have done something wrong. A good old fashioned site map normally takes care of this. Has your site got one?

Contact details
If you are truly interested in your users you will ensure that your site has an easy way for a user to contact you should they experience any difficulties in using your site.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but it should be sufficient to get you going along the road to full website accessibility.

There are many people out there that would love to visit and use your site. Give them a chance, make your site as accessible to as many as what you possibly can.

These posts might be related:

1. Providing Equivalent Alternatives
2. Adding Images to our Content
3. W3C Accessibility Guidelines - Priority 1 Checkpoints
4. Website accessibility is not only for the disabled
5. 10 Common Errors when Implementing Accessibility