Web Accessibility Initiative

Usability Interface
Web Accessibility Initiative

by Whitney Quesenbery
Reprinted from Usability Interface, Vol 6, No. 2, October 1999

"The power of the Web is in its universality.
Access by everyone regardless of
disability is an essential aspect"
– Tim Berners-Lee, W3C

This quote opens the web page for the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which focuses on making the web accessible to all users. In May 1999, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 were released as a full W3C Recommendation.

It might be easy to dismiss the WAI as another mouthful of acronyms for yet another Web standard but that would be a mistake. Their goal is to, "…make Web content more available to all users, whatever user agent they are using (e.g., desktop browser, voice browser, mobile phone, automobile-based personal computer, etc.) or constraints they may be operating under (e.g., noisy surroundings, under- or over-illuminated rooms, in a hands-free environment, etc.)."

To meet this goal, the WAI identifies two primary principles for accessible design, which are totally in keeping with the basic principles of usability: "Ensure graceful transformation" and "Make content understandable and navigable." There are fourteen guidelines that help authors understand and implement these principles. Each includes a description and rationale, along with links to other resources and a set of checkpoints. A related document shows detailed techniques for implementing accessible web pages.

Even if you are not primarily concerned with accessibility, many of their techniques are simply good web design. This blend of general principles with practical advice makes the Content Accessibility Guidelines a helpful and useful tool.

Content Accessibility Guidelines

1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content

2. Don't rely on color alone. Ensure that text and graphics are understandable when viewed without color.

3. Use markup and styles sheets and do so properly. Control presentation with style sheets rather than with presentation elements and attributes.

4. Clarify natural language usage. Use markup that facilitates pronunciation or interpretation of abbreviated or foreign text.

5. Create tables that transform gracefully.

6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.

7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes. Ensure that moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating objects or pages may be paused or stopped.

8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.

9. Design for device-independence. Use features that enable activation of page elements via a variety of input devices.

10. Use interim accessibility solutions so that assistive technologies and older browsers will operate correctly.

11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines.

12. Provide context and orientation information to help users understand complex pages or elements.

13. Provide clear and consistent navigation mechanisms -- orientation information, navigation bars, a site map, etc. -- to increase the likelihood that a person will find what they are looking for at a site.

For more information, or to read the full Guidelines, visit the WAI web site at www.w3.org/WAI