For this week, the lecture started off with a talk on accessibility by Ms Lucy Dodds. The talk was quite informative and contained elements of which I was never aware or have considered before. When we usually design a website we often worry most about the code and maybe the aesthetics of the page most. This often makes us neglect the fact that our page might not be as accessible as we may think.
Disabilities exists, we just have to open our eyes to notice them; from rare genetic diseases to a decline in senses through old age. They are normally classified into four main categories: intellectual, visual, auditory and motor.
When tackling the building of a website one must think about all of the types of users that are going to be visiting it. They might include people bearing one of the defined categorical disabilities. Each particular category requires a different approach to convey the intended information on your page.
Over the course of the past few days I have been more conscious to accessibility when browsing the web, both in terms of observing what others do and in terms of what I do.
I noted that several of the highly visited sites, especially news agencies take the issue relatively seriously. You will find each picture correctly labelled, simple and clean layouts, options to change the text size and well defined colour schemes. These are also apparent in some of the phone Apps found today. When it comes to my own material I am now paying attention to the html title and caption I give to a picture and also the choice of words I use.
In a nutshell, simple changes from the part of the developer/designer/publisher may work wonders for some people and be the difference between an enjoyable and repeated stay to an immediate search for another source.
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