Web Accessibility: a feature or a must to have?
(part-I)
Introduction:
I have attended a web conference(@geeksblabla) about web development, where a guest talked about the importance of web accessibility while building web/mobile apps. I was shocked with the information presented so I thought that I should write an article to reach more people on Accessibility.
Why should you care?
One billion people, or 15% of the world’s population have some permanent disability as of 2022. This is a huge percentage of people and a huge community that need to be served. With these numbers, it is crucial to make your website or app more flexible so that people who have disabilities can interact with. The goal is to provide every individual an equal opportunity to access the internet, its contents, and its functionalities, irrespective of their abilities.
In many countries, web accessibility is a legitimate right. let’s take USA as an example: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is being interpreted by the majority of federal courts to apply to websites of private entities. As a result, inaccessible websites can be viewed as discriminatory against persons with disabilities.
“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” — Tim Berners-Lee
What is web accessibility?
In simple words, accessibility in the digital space means all your digital products such as a website or apps should be readable, operable, and functional to all users (including disabled people).
For example: a deaf person should be able to book a flight and complete subsequent formalities online on their own. A blind person should be able to attend virtual training classes and gain knowledge. A person with hand tremors should be able to perform tasks on computers using a special type of mouse or keyboard.
When you build accessible websites, it doesn’t just help those with permanent disabilities. It make a great difference to other types of temporary disabilities as well. Someone with a temporary disability like lost glasses or broken arm, can benefit from the accessible web.
Disability classification:
you may think that accessibility is related only to disabled people, but this is not always the case because there are types of disabilities:
- Permanent Disability: This is when someone is permanently disabled. This could include being blind, deaf, and so on.
- Temporary Disability: This is a physical or mental disability which hinders someone’s discharging of responsibilities for a short period of time(broken arm, after an eye surgery).
- Conditional or Situation Disability: This is when someone is not able to do things due to the situation they find themselves in. There are plenty of examples for situational disability. It could be due to a slow internet connection, or someone holding a baby in their hand, and so on.
Laws:
There are various national and international laws on Accessibility. These laws are broadly categorized into:
Civil law: These laws protect discriminations against disabled people. It takes care of issues such as equal employment opportunity, making public places such as restaurants and shopping malls more accessible. An example of this type of law is: the Americans with Disability Act (ADA).
Procurement law: These laws require the Federal agencies to buy products which are accessible. If one needs to choose from three available options, one being accessible and others are not, the Federal Agency will preferably buy the one that is accessible.
Industry specific law: Nowadays governments around the world writes laws just for a specific industry. Examples of such laws, specific to the USA, are the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).
What we gain from applying web accessibility:
Equal opportunity: The Web is an important medium for receiving information as well as for providing information and interacting with society and it is used in all fields(education, commerce, news, healthcare, …). Therefore, it is essential that the Web is accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to disabled people.
Potential untapped market: There is a potential market that could be catered to. Online sales may be affected by the store website not being accessible, and as a result loss potential customers, we talk here about One billion potential customers.
Conclusion
To summarize all, it is very important for everyone involved in a project to be sensitized towards the needs of disabled people, understand their problems and then create feasible solutions which are accessible to everyone. This in turn will help in catering to an untapped market with robust solutions which are inclusive and pretty flexible to work on a variety of devices.
I would like to leave you with a quote:
“The one argument for accessibility that doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it makes some people’s lives. How many opportunities do we have to dramatically improve people’s lives just by doing our job a little better?” ― Steve Krug
