Designing for Accessibility
What is the WAI?
The WAI, or the Web Accessibility Initiative, is a set of guidelines and recommendations for web designers and developers, laid out by the W3C, or the World Wide Web Consortium, to ensure that websites are designed in
a way that makes them accessible and user-friendly to all people, including people with disabilities or special needs. While the primary focus of this initiative is to aid people with disabilities, such as the blind and
the deaf, it also aims to establish guidelines for other groups of people such as older people, people with low literacy or language skills, people with low bandwidth internet connections, people with older browsers or
technologies and people using smartphones and tablets.
What is WAI conformance?
To fully and successfully conform to the standards of the WAI, a website must meet the 12 guidelines listed in the Web Content Accessibility Guide (WCAG). These guidelines are organized under four principles of accessibility. These are:
- Perceivable – The user must be able to perceive the content of a website with at least one of their senses.
- Operable – The user must be able to operate and navigate through the interface of a website.
- Understandable – The user must be able to understand both the content of a website and how to interact with the content and operate the navigation of a website.
- Robust – Content should be robust and flexible enough to remain accessible to the user as technologies advance
There are five requirements which must be met in order to determine whether a website conforms to the guidelines of the WCAG. These are:
- Conformance Level – The conformance level of a website to the WCAG guidelines is ranked using three levels of conformance. These are A, AA and AAA, with A being the lowest level of conformance and AAA being the highest
level of conformance. To conform to the WCAG guidelines, it is required that a website satisfies at least all of the Level A Success Criteria or that there is an alternate version of the site which does so, or
conformance is not possible.
- Full pages – This requirement states that the entire web page must conform to the WCAG guidelines, rather than just part of the page. There are exceptions to this requirement where certain supplemental pieces of
information do not have to conform as long as they are available on another page which does conform.
- Complete processes – This requirement dictates that when a web page is part of a series of web pages which are connected in one process, such as a sequence of steps on separate web pages which must all be completed to
accomplish a goal, all of the web pages in the process must conform to the WCAG guidelines. An example of this is an online store page and checkout page.
- Only Accessibility Supported Ways of Using Technologies – This requirement asks that any content, information or purpose of a website which is displayed using technologies which are not accessibility supported are also
displayed in a way which is accessibility supported. For example, if there is a video on a web page then it should include captions.
- Non-Interference – This requirement allows for technologies which do not support accessibility to be used as long as all of the information is available using technologies which do support accessibility and as long as
the technologies which do not support accessibility do not interfere with the ones which do.
How does the WAI work?
A common example of how the WAI is implemented is alternative text, or “alt” text as it’s widely known, which provides a text transcription of images so that the blind and people with declining eyesight can interpret the
content of images and diagrams by using a screen reader. Alt text can also help people with low bandwidth internet connections or older technologies to interpret the content of images which won’t load in their browser.
Another example of how the WAI guidelines can be used is by providing transcripts for audio clips, podcasts and videos so that audio content can be interpreted by the deaf and hard of hearing. This also helps people with low
bandwidth connections or older technologies, which can’t play audio or video content.
The WAI guidelines also help to ensure that websites are designed and presented in a way that is easy to read and interpret for average internet users. One example of this is encouraging designers not to use small fonts which
are hard for people with poor eyesight, poor viewing conditions or different devices to read. Other methods of using the WAI to aid with usability include recommending that designers maintain appropriate amounts of line
spacing, word spacing and letter spacing and that they use text colours that contrast well against the background they are set against so that text is easy to read. Light text on a light background or dark text on a dark
background would be examples of colour combinations which would make content difficult to interpret, even for people without disabilities. Certain colour combinations such as yellow text on a green background are also
especially hard to read and can cause the user to strain their eyes.
Why is the WAI important?
The Web Accessibility Initiative is important because ensuring that the web is accessible is part of creating a fair and just society by giving people with disabilities or disadvantages equal access to the internet.
The UN has even declared access to information and communication through the internet a basic human right. Furthermore, in some cases web accessibility is required by law.
While the Web Accessibility Initiative is important for social inclusion, there is also a strong case for accessibility from a strictly practical, business perspective. Similarly to other best practices when designing websites,
such as responsive design, mobile design and search engine optimization (SEO), designing for accessibility simply opens up your company’s website to a wider consumer base. It also contributes to wider reach, better search
results and reduced maintenance issues among other benefits.
Next ↓
