There are 2 types of blind people. Ones that can read print and ones that cannot. The ones that can not read print need an alternative to the monitor. They have 3 options.
- Text to Speech (screen reader)
- Braille Display
- a person to read the screen to them.
For those who have low vision (like me) there are 3 options
- Screen Magnification software
- Larger Monitors
- Flat Panel mounted on an arm
When designing a website with blind users in mind the main rule is to make sure everything you want to tell your users is in print somewhere. The trend to use CSS have improved the Internet for blind users quite a bit. If you follow good SEO rules and use CSS there is a very good chance blind users can see your site. The first rule that you see in every list is to use alt tags on your images. Describe what you see in the image. You don’t need to describe it in complete detail just describe what it is there for and of course any text that is on it. Next you want use descriptive anchor text. The links in this post our good examples of what to do. The thing to avoid is a link that says “click here”. It is very helpful to have a good sitemap. Not just list of links but links with descriptions next to them. Similar to how directories are set up.
The largest group of blind users will be those with low vision. If you make a site where a low vision person can easily read then you have made a website that normal users can easily read. I have often said that advertisers should hire people with low vision to help with design. Most ads are seen for a very short period of time and from a distance. If you stick a person with low vision in front of your ad and they don’t get it then there is a good chance a sited person that is not paying close attention is going to get it. It is very hard to read a site that has a weird background or text that has very little contrast against the background. Don’t lock down the print size so we can’t use the browsers built in ability to enlarge text. (In IE: View -> Text Size)
Most people don’t know that you can do almost anything on a computer without a mouse. This is what blind people are doing. It is a good idea to learn how to navigate your site without using a mouse. Set up tab orders in your code.
Swali letu NJE YA BONGO.COM, je hivi website zetu za kibongo zinawalenga wasioona pia ?
0 comments:
Post a Comment