What does accessibility really mean?
This entry was posted on February 1, 2008
Wikipedia defines accessibility as “a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e.g., device, service, environment) is accessible by as many people as possible.” I’ve always considered myself to be fairly ‘down’ with accessibility in relation to websites, even if my designs aren’t always that accessible.
Recently I’ve been thinking about what accessibility really means, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s impossible to define it exactly. I’ve realised that accessibility means different things to different people. My friend Rosie finds it a lot easier to read light text on a dark background, yet Ambie gets a headache when she reads light text on a dark background. Different people prefer different font sizes, and many web designers / developers are still sizing their text with pixels, forgetting that this doesn’t allow IE users to resize the text.
I really do think that everyone is unique when it comes to what makes an accessible website. For me personally, I need a neutral colour scheme (bright colours hurt my eyes), large (12pt+) text that I can resize if I need to, good colour contrast, cross-browser compatibility, and small file sizes for when I’m browsing on my phone. That’s just the bare minimum.
What makes a website accessible to you?
8 lovely people have commented
·
