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Who benefits from web accessibility?

April 14, 2008

Let’s start by dispelling a myth and unequivocally saying it’s a lot more than just blind people.

Whilst blind people and their use of assistive technologies to read web pages are an obvious and important example, consider also people with other visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological impairments.

How does a colour-blind person cope with page colours?
How does someone with a mobility impairment manage without being able to use a mouse?
How does someone with attention deficit disorder make sense of the pages?
How does a deaf person gain access to auditory content?

The answer to all of those questions is: by making web pages accessible to them.

But it’s not just disabled people that benefit. Making web pages accessible to disabled people will also help:

Older people.
People with low literacy levels.
People who are not fluent in the website language.
People with low bandwidth connections.
People using older technologies.
New and infrequent users.
People with short-term injuries and illnesses.
In fact, pretty much everybody because with more accessibility comes more usability.

And you benefit also.

As well as being a good citizen and complying with the law on disability discrimination, you will gain a number of operational benefits:

Reduced site development and maintenance time.
Reduced server load.
Improved interoperability.
Preparation for advanced technologies.
More search engine robot friendly.
Increased website use.

The arguments for making your website accessible are compelling. But what does it involve? Well much of it is just plain good practice and can be addressed simply by ensuring the (X)HTML and CSS are valid. Then add usability features to benefit everyone. Finally go the extra mile and follow the WCAG guidelines external link .