"Reaction [beta]"
The accessibility cookbook: A recipe for disaster 13 Nov 2007
NorthTemple has published a great article on the importance of knowing the "whys" of accessibility:
"It has been my experience that many people who learn about accessibility are led down a similar path as would-be bread bakers. They are handed a recipe and told, 'This is what you are to do, and if you don't do this exactly, those crazy disability advocates will come after you with their blood-thirsty lawyers.' They are told things like, 'mark headings up as such,' and 'put skip-to-content links at the top of pages.' What all too often is not mentioned is why."
Knowing the "whys" is absolutely critical, because if you don't understand how these "accessibility recipes" will actually help disabled users, you risk inadvertantly placing new obstacles in their path. We've lost count of the number of sites we've tested that "follow the rules" yet are a real pain for disabled users to get to grips with due to pointless alt attributes, redundant links, markup overload and so on.
To address this problem, the author of the article recommends that designers develop a deeper understanding of the rationale behind each recipe and that they test with disabled users if at all possible. An undeniably sensible approach. However, we also believe that a wider change in accessibility thinking is necessary. In our opinion, disability rights groups, legislators and standards bodies place too much emphasis on adherence to the WCAG cookbook and not enough on creating sites that are accessible in practice. As a result, most businesses are incentivised to just "check the accessibility boxes" rather than to ensure that their sites are actually accessible to real-life disabled users.
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4 comments so far
Matt 13 Nov 2007 10:14 AM
I don't see how this is a great article. To me, it is just stating the obvious and putting a link to a book. There's too many blog articles stating this fact and this is just yet another one.
Hardly ground-breaking stuff.
Christopher Phillips 13 Nov 2007 04:44 PM
Agreed that the NorthTemple article offers sound advice- it would be great if developers would take the time to understand the reasons behind accessibility techniques and implement and adapt as needed.
Ideally everyone would genuinely care about the needs of users with disabilities. However, that is not a realistic expectation for many developers who simply don't care and will always do the bare minimum that a checklist requires.
While we need to continue to promote an awareness of meeting needs in a practical way, no doubt efforts also need to be made to create better standards. The WCAG 2.0 Working Group is planning on releasing their next draft next month, so now is a great time to jump in to reading the working drafts and jump into the fray.
Ben 13 Nov 2007 05:46 PM
What's unique about this article is that it's author has been blind since birth and is attempting to enlighten the readers about the big picture.
Every conference has a panel of able bodied, normal visioned "experts" go on and on about nuances of accessibility.
How often do you read or hear elegant and practical advice from someone whose web experience is often defined by people who don't get it?
That's what ground-breaking Matt.
Matt 14 Nov 2007 10:51 AM
Well, I feel i've heard it all before a thousand times.
Getting users with a disability to test a sites accessibility seems obvious to me!?
I also found the whole bread making analogy very tiresome. Yeah, we get it, it's like making bread.
The article doesnt provide anything ground-breaking for me even if it is from someone who has been blind from birth.