Introduction to Web Accessibility

This page discusses three aspects of Accessibility. First, why digital accessibility is important. Second, important concepts of accessibility. Third, the internet use of blind people.

Why is Digital Accessibility important?

The freedom of people with disabilities to access information and communicate on an equal basis with others, including via the internet, is considered a human right by the United Nations.

This equal access to information and communication is crucial for all people to meaningfully participate in civil society. At the same time, the internet provides powerful opportunities for people with disabilities to achieve this level of access and participation (see Ellis and Kent 2011, page 2).

Important concepts of Accessibility

Access and Accessibility

First of all, accessibility is defined by Ellcessor as the ability of an individual with “one or more disabilities to make meaningful use of a media technology" with the help of assistive technology or by using modified mainstream media (see Ellcessor 2016, page 11).

An important contribution by Ellcessor is her understanding of access and accessibility as “relational” and “unstable" phenomena that become meaningful in the interaction of “bodies, technologies, cultures, and practices”.

The question is not whether someone either has access or has not, it is about the specific relations and context of a situation. Likewise, a website, a technology can never be called “accessible”. Only accessible to certain users in certain conditions (see Ellcessor 2016, pages 12 to 16 and 92).

Content and form

Form describes the hardware, code, and interfaces that make up media objects and form the presentation of its content.

Essential for digital media accessibility to work is the separation of form and content. It enables software to mediate between inaccessible mainstream forms and assistive technologies, so that the same content can be presented by alternative interfaces like screenreaders.

This is an example of the principle of variability in digital media, identified by new media scholar Lev Manovich (see Ellcessor 2016, pages 23 and 90. And Manovich 2001, page 37).

The alternative user position of blind people

To meaningfully discuss web accessibility and the disabilities imposed on blind people by the internet, the normative user position on the web has to be identified.

In case of the web it is the able-bodied, technologically literate adult that can understand and use all technological conventions, interfaces, and apps with which they are presented. This includes the ability to read, both in terms of literacy and of vision. And the ability to manipulate a mouse to interact with websites (see Ellcessor 2016, pages 64 and 73 to 74).

In contrast to the normative user, Blind users rely on screenreader programs to scan websites (and other interfaces) and present their contents through synthesized speech or braille displays. These displays consist of a line of braille segments that each represent a single character.

Aside from switches on the braille terminal, the common keyboard is the primary method of input. Various key combinations control properties of the screenreader and the tab and arrow keys are used to navigate the interface.

Thus, problems in using the web often occur, when blind users cannot navigate a webpage by keyboard input because it is improperly structured or when there is no text alternative provided for non-text content like icons and images.

Literature

Ellcessor, Elizabeth (2016). Restricted Access. Media, Disability, and the Politics of Participation. New York: New York University Press.

Ellis, Katie and Kent, Mike (2011). Disability and New Media. New York: Routledge.

Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media. Cambridge, London: MIT Press.