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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
Not everyone has Netscape on a 200 MHz Pentium, and a 56K modem. Some people have slow modems, and text-based Internet browsers, even now. Such people may have trouble with your WWW pages. And, handicapped people may have a variety of problems with your pages. For example, a blind person may have software that reads the text out loud. If your graphic images have no alternate text (for example, ALT="my cheezy logo"), that blind person may not enjoy reading your page.
My HTML editor has an option to check, and comment on the accessibility of my pages. Other editors probably have similar options. The guidelines were apparently drawn up by the Adaptive Technology Research Centre at the University of Toronto. Here are their guidelines [with my comments]:
- Provide meaningful text for all links (A elements). [Essentially avoid "click here."]
- Include alternate text (using the ALT attribute) for all images.
- Use client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps (to make them accessible to the visually impaired using the tab function in Internet Explorer 3.0).
- Include alternate (ALT) text for each image map AREA.
- Place a textual list of all image map links elsewhere on the page. [Is that clear? Below your image map, have the same links in a text list.]
- Choose readable combinations of text and background colors. [For example, black text on a red background can be unreadable on a black and white laptop. White on black may not print on a printer. Low contrast colors may be unreadable to the color-blind.]
- All tables should be accompanied by a link to a text only presentation of their content.
- All forms should be accompanied by a link to a text only presentation of their content.
- Text boxes in forms should have default content that suggests the kind of information the user should enter.
- Always include a NOFRAMES version of a page that uses frames.
- Avoid hyperlinks longer than ten words. Longer links may be cut off by screen readers.
- Ensure that there are separating spaces or characters between each hyperlink. [It is sometimes difficult to tell that there are two links there, even in Netscape.]
- Avoid using the MARQUEE and BLINK elements.
- Keep the color and font constant within each word. [Software that speaks will think a new word begins where the color or font changes.]
- Include descriptive text for BGSOUND (background sound) files.
- Include descriptive text for audio files.
- Include descriptive text for video files.
- Include alternate and descriptive text for applets.
- Include alternate and descriptive text for ActiveX objects.
- Warn the user if Client-Server Push-Pulls are being used.
I would add some of my own:
- Warn the user if you must violate the above rules for some valid reason.
- Warn the users, before they get to a page with frames, Java, large graphics, or other slow elements. Allow the users to get out early, with a "Click here for the text version of this page" at the top of the page, while these slow elements are loading. Don't make them wait until it is all loaded.
- You may not be able to provide accessibility to all users. But, at least, consider their problems.
I should add that I have not yet fixed some of these problems in my own pages. But, I am working on it. This page itself has a background color. But, I assume all browsers can deal with it.
See My HTML Standards.