By Gail J Berg ©2009
While you or I may have full use of our facilities, namely sight (visual) and sound (aural), not everyone who uses the internet does. While our profession usually involves visual representation of our creations to customers, some customers (or relatives of customers, purchasing gifts) may not.
So, while a picture may save one thousand words, sometimes those thousand words (or at least a few hundred) may help generate a sale.
The easiest way to “put into words” what is displayed is include a written description, or at least a caption for each image used. In addition, use of the “alt text” specification for images allows the description to “pop- up” if a user looks at an image. Examples of captions, “alt text” can be seen here.
With the use of larger and larger screens, as well as those who have difficulty seeing, many folks enjoy the ability of most browsers to increase or change the font size. Designing for absolute “pixel” size compared to percentage may cause display issues if someone widens or shrinks the width or height of a page from how you envisioned or created the page. (I’ve created a test page here that you can see how fixed vs. percentage tables can be affected when zooming in/out increasing the font size.)
Standard screen size is about 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high; pages wider will require a user to manipulate a cursor side to side and pages longer/taller will require a user to “page” down/up.
Some folks have sensitive hearing, or just enjoy listening to their favorite music or other audio, so if you do include music or other audio on your site, including video with sound or a podcast, please include a “mute” function, or make it optional to play as the default.
Other issues about designing for accessibility are discussed in a report available (for free) at this site. Here’s an example of a blind engineer working to keep all technology accessible (and with better interaction for all).
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