Software Accessibility

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Accessibility is making computer systems usable by those who have a disability so they are not disadvantaged over other users in any way.

Most accessibility work is based on web-based software, as this is a public representation of a company. However, the general principles are applicable to all software development.

Some issues are now mandated by law.

Disability Issues

Developers must consider these types of situations during design:

• They may not be able to see, hear, move or may not be able to process some times of information easily or at all
• They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text
• They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse
• They may have a text-only screen, a small screen or a slow internet connection
• They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written
• They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears or hands are busy of interfered with (e.g. driving, working in a loud environment etc)
• They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser or a different operating system.

Web Content Accessibility

The W3C maintain a set of web content accessibility guidelines. Each guideline is given a priority.

Priority 1 guidelines are those which are essential other wise one or more group will find it impossible to access information.

Priority 2 guidelines are advised otherwise one or more groups will find it difficult to access information.

Priority 3 guidelines are optional, otherwise one ore more group will find it some what difficult to access information.

The guidelines are as follows:

1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content
2. Don’t rely on colour alone
3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly
4. Clarify natural language usage
5. Create tables that transform gracefully
6. Ensure that pages feature new technologies transform gracefully
7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes
8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces
9. Design for device-independence
10. Use interim solutions
11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines
12. Provide context and orientation information
13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms
14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple

Related posts:

1. The Mechanics of Interaction
2. Empirical Software Evaluation
3. An Analysis of Amazon against Neilson’s Usability Principles
4. Software Evaluation – Surveys
5. How Interfaces Affect Users

Tagged as: hci