The Concept Of Web Accessibility And Its Importance

The concept of web accessibility and its importance

Introduction

According to the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), it specifies that web accessibility is the possibility that every person can access the web, independently, that is, outside the type of hardware, software or network infrastructure with whichtell, your language, geographical location and culture. 

According to Shawn Henry “web accessibility is to design products and services so that people who possess some type of disability can use it, this makes user interfaces perceptible, operable and understandable for people with different types of capacities and in circumstances, in circumstances,different environments and conditions. In this way, accessibility also benefits people without disabilities and organizations that develop accessible products ”. 

To establish accessibility standards, various work teams have been created, among which the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) stands out, with its accessibility initiative (WAI-Web Accessibility Initiative). These organizations have been responsible for developing standards and recommendations guides for an accessible web design and also for web accessibility evaluation. 

Developing

At the time of talking about web accessibility, reference is made to universal access to the web, that is, the degree to which all people can use the web, their contents, regardless of the person who enters, either by any typeof disability by the user being this physical or technical disability.

In a more specific way when talking about web accessibility, reference is made to a web design that allows the person (user) to perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the web, contributing at the same time contained. Web accessibility also benefits other people, such as elderly people who have somehow diminished their skills because of age. 

But the web accessibility theme covers several types of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, neurological and speech disability.

In the world there are millions of people with some type of disability who cannot use the web. Today, most websites already have accessibility barriers, this makes it difficult to use the web for many people with disabilities. 

Web accessibility also benefits organizations, a basic principle of web accessibility is flexibility, this with the objective of satisfying different needs, situations and preferences by users, this flexibility will benefit all those who use the website,Including people who do not have any type of disability but who, due to several situations, have difficulty accessing the web (for example, a slow connection), those people who suffer a transitory disability are also included (for example,a broken arm), and elderly people. The document "Development of a web accessibility project for your organization" describes the different benefits of web accessibility. 

 Who benefits web accessibility?

Web accessibility mainly benefits people with some type of disability, but not only is it for that, but also as options for the improvement in the quality of quality and the general use of the web in every field. 

Why is web accessibility important?

The web is a resource of great importance for different areas of life such as education, employment, government, trade, health, entertainment, etc. That is why it is very important that it is accessible to provide access with equal opportunities to people with disabilities. An accessible web page means that it will help people with disabilities to participate more actively in society. 

The web offers people with disabilities an opportunity to access information and interact with it. The document "Social factors in the development of a web accessibility project for your organization" deals with the topic on the way in which the website exerts influence on the lives of people with disabilities, the digital divide that exists and web accessibility asan aspect of social responsibility in the company and the world. Another important point for companies is that web accessibility is a requirement established in some cases by laws.

Web accessibility design

The purpose of universal design in accessibility is to simplify the performance of daily tasks through the construction of products, services and thereby simple environments to use by all people and without any effort. 

It is based on 7 principles, which are:

• Equal use: the design must be easy to use and suitable for all people independent of their abilities and skills.
• Flexibility: the design must be able to adapt to a wide range of individual preferences and skills.
• Simple and intuitive: the design must be easy to understand independent of experience, knowledge, skills or level of user concentration.
• Easy to perceive information: the design must be able to exchange information with the user, independent of the environmental conditions or the sensory capacities of the same.
• Errors tolerant: design must minimize accidental or fortuitous actions that may have fatal or unwanted consequences.
• Scarce physical effort: the design must be able to be used effectively and with the minimum possible effort.
• Appropriate dimensions: sizes and spaces must be appropriate for the scope, manipulation and use by the user, independent of their size, position and mobility.

 Web accessibility objectives

The main objectives of web accessibility are:

• Sensitize
• Suggest and
• Remember the designers and creators of web pages all possible techniques so that their pages are legible and easily accessible to anyone who visits it, even with some type of disability.

A web page is considered accessible when any person, regardless of their personal, characteristics of the equipment or environmental environment from which it accesses the web, can use and understand its contents. 

Web accessibility myths

Since the beginning of web accessibility, different and false myths on web accessibility have emerged, many of them generated by the lack of information or a ignorance of the techniques that allow a website (website) to be accessible. 

The main myth created among people is to believe that the accessibility of a website is resolved by creating a version of it but "only text", that is to say without images or colors and that, therefore, if you want to have a single version ofA website and that this is accessible, the use of images and colors has to be set aside and in this way the website will be "ugly and boring", but this argument is totally false. 

But not only does this myth exist, there are others like:

• People with disabilities do not use the web: this is totally false, rather is the opposite, since new technologies have allowed a large number of people with disabilities to lead an autonomous and independent life.
• Web pages with only text are accessible: another false myth since the web pages that contain text can be difficult to understand by people with cognitive disabilities or with difficulties with language as is the case of deaf people.
• Accessibility is only for the blind: very false, in the world there are users with different types of disability that can experience different problems of access and use of the content of the web pages. – Accessibility is only for people with disabilities: false!, Although people with disabilities can be the users who benefit most when using web accessibility, in reality the benefit is for everyone, since it also helps any user who is in special circumstances such as low environmentslighting, noisy, Internet access with connections and equipment with limited capabilities, etc.

Web accessibility standards

There are a lot of both standards and standards for the design of web pages that are aimed at facilitating an adequate level in accessibility. Different organizations have been in charge of developing these standards and standards. When we talk about organizations recognized by governments as standardization, these norms are “IURE” or official standards, such as the case of ISO, AENOR, ANSI, etc. When it comes to recommendations from other organizations that have become true standards due to their use in practice, these are called "de facto" standards, as in the case of W3C standards, IMS, etc. 

In the figure we can observe some of the logos of the main organizations that have created standards related to web accessibility. Among them we have, the first five located at the top would be official standardization organizations (ISO, CEN in Europe, AENOR in Spain, ANSI in the US, BSI in the United Kingdom);Meanwhile that the six at the bottom would be organizations that elaborate de facto standards (W3C, ETSI, HFES, GSA, IMS, WAB). 

If we talk about de facto standards, W3C are the most important in web accessibility, and all these standards are free access type. There are different types of software tools which can help us with the evaluation of the accessibility of a website according to some of the standards . These tools can belong to any of the following types: 

• Grammar validation (HTML, CSS)
• Validation of Accessibility Control Points (WCAG) • Tool bars and web browsers • Color and contrast evaluators
• Disabilities simulators
• Text browsers
• Support products

The advantages with which they have automatic review in the following aspects: the tools have much faster and more systematic operation, because many aspects are reviewed simultaneously and also that offers a global type rating of the accessibility of the accessibility of the accessibility of thepage, on the other hand, one of the inconveniences that arises are the interpretation of results is usually somewhat complex for novice and several of the aspects require in the manual review. 

The advantages of manual review are that problems are understood in a much better way, different solutions can be raised, a disadvantage is that they are very expensive since they require a lot of time invested to evaluate a website. 

 How web accessibility is achieved

In order for web accessibility to keep in mind that not all people access the web with the same technical means and also that not all users have the ability to correctly perceive all the contents published on the web.

• Creation of pages that are transformed correctly and offer the content in an understandable way to achieve navigation by the website.
• Create pages which must comply with accepted standards.
• Know the differences of both presentation and structure elements;perform style sheets when possible to use them.
• Use the features offered by HTML (4.0) to provide extensive content about the purpose and function of the elements.
• Make sure the pages can be made with the keyboard.
• Provide alternative methods for non -textual content, including either images, scripts, multimedia, tables, forms and frames, for user agents who cannot show them.

Conclusions

You could say what accessibility is the ease with which something can be used or accessed by all people, especially by those who have some type of disability. It could also be said that it is a type of condition that must be met in the environments, products and services so that they are understandable, usable and especially practicable by all people. In the Internet Area, thanks to the existence of rules of the accessibility of the web content that have been created and publish over time, especially the WCAG guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium. It has been possible to create greater social awareness, demanding that some of the minimum requirements in web accessibility be met, taking into account the benefits which are not only for people with different abilities or the elderly, but that these benefits of theweb accessibility applies to all .

References

1. V. Carmen, m. Antonio and J. A, «Standards and legislation on web accessibility,» of Proceedings of the IV International Congress Atica 2012, Loja, 2012.
2. L. M. Jose Fuertes, "Web accessibility," Trans, Nº II, P. 20, 2007.
3. University of Alicante, «Web accessibility».
4. Research Center Development and Typhlotechnical application, «Web Pages Accessibility», October, 2013
5. D. Framework. «Access without barriers», W3C, Chile.
6. G. Pedro Solana, B. Rocio Rocha, «Web Accessibility», University of Cantabria.