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The Future of Web Accessibility

Posted November 13, 2007 By Manoj Thomas |

At TradeMark Media, we recognize that Web accessibility is emerging as an essential feature of Web site development. Accessibility enables users with disabilities to find information on the Web easily. We do our best to keep up with the latest innovations in accessibility and incorporate it into every site we create.

When TradeMark Media opened its doors 8 years ago, the first working version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) was just being released. It provided useful strategies for Web developers about ways to structure and style information, which in turn could provide the most accessible content for all users.

Since then, the Web has become more robust and we’ve found ourselves consistently working with richer, user-generated content and multimedia, which far surpass the scope that drafters of the guidelines originally had in mind. So what does the future hold for accessibility?

Newer technologies will continue to drive the market

Technologies such as Flash and AJAX are here to stay. WCAG 1.0 didn’t provide any resourceful information as to how we can use these tools and even suggested that these types of features be avoided to achieve better accessibility. WCAG 2.0, currently in a working draft and regarded as technology-neutral, skirts away from this issue. What exactly does this mean? There will be fewer constraints for developers on the types of technologies they use and more support for assistive technologies, which will help deliver content to audiences.

For example, assistive technologies used collectively, such as the screen reader, JAWS, and captioning tool, MAGpie, provide excellent ways to separate content from media. MAGpie can add full captions to any standard video based on a text transcript, and this can be seamlessly read by JAWS. Even Flash, which has been praised for its interactive possibilities but frowned upon for its inaccessibility, now incorporates meaningful, accessible practices.

Accessibility evangelists will play a larger role in the development cycle

Many of the basic guidelines laid out in WCAG 1.0 are now overshadowed by advanced issues that need to be addressed – it’s not as straightforward as it seemed five years ago. Now more than ever we’re in need of experts who understand the importance and value of accessibility and can communicate cutting-edge methods to clients and developers.

It’s a bit naïve to think that a completely accessible Web site can be easily created and maintained, especially since user-generated content is quickly becoming the norm. More often than ever we have to be prepared to offer secondary solutions, such as alternative versions of content that can be accessible and just as useful.

It’s still all about the user

The checkpoints provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are a great starting point to establish whether your site meets the basic requirements of accessibility, but it can’t be the only determining factor. Derek Featherstone, principal of Further Ahead, led a very informative session at this year’s Webmaster Jam and explained how vital it is not to overlook the unique user/situation at hand for each project. The best accessible user experience can’t be created by following general guidelines – instead it takes a creative team of developers and accessibility experts to produce a usable site.

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