Adventures in living a healthy, juicy life
by Cheryl Ragsdale
Is Your Web Site Accessible to People Who Can’t See?
vision impaired student at computer with professor looking on
Now that’s an interesting question. I’ve always assumed that someone else has sorted that out so I don’t have to think about it.
But, according to Tom Babinszki from evengrounds, it doesn’t happen automatically. It requires effort on my part.
Luckily, there are some things we can do easily to help make our sites more accessible to people with vision or hearing issues.
Recently, I asked Tom what we bloggers could do – or should do – to capture the attention of someone who “reads” differently from a sighted person.
Here are my question and his response on “The Fear of Making Web Sites Accessible”
My Question:
how to capture or focus attention of a person who can’t see page
Submitted by Cheryl from thatgirlisfunny on Sun, 03/21/2010 – 13:32.
Uh oh, “don’t use color to indicate information”.
I use color to indicate importance or to focus someone’s eye to a certain point or phrase on a page.
How do I capture the attention of a person who can’t see? What is it that compels him or her to keep reading? Do you have tips or tricks or insight into how to arrange content to capture the attention of a person who can’t see the page?
For audio, we use voice inflection. For video, we use body language. I’ve never thought about how to engage a non-sighted person’s attention to written words.
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Tom’s Answer:
game cube for blind people has knobs and bits and bobs to make this game fun for everyone
Cheryl,
It is very important to use colors, as you said, you have to capture your reader. The idea is that you shouldn’t use color only. For example, don’t say that the mandatory fields are marked with red. Rather, mark it with red, and also indicate it with a “*” or say “required”.
And how to capture the attention of visually impaired users? With great navigation, the use of headings, lists, descriptive links, etc. I can tell you what works for sighted people, will work for visually impaired people if coded properly. It will be somewhat different of course, they won’t look for highlighted content. But they will look for information, and if it is easy to find, you will have their attention.
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The student being assisted by his professor in the photo above is taken from an interesting story entitled:
Seeing-Eye Computer Guides Blind
“Helen Keller once said that what a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self. Researchers are developing a system that aims to provide something close — a computerized “seeing” assistant that will help blind people read books, access Web pages, recognize faces and navigate unfamiliar rooms.
The portable version of the system, called Tyflos — Greek for blind — consists of a tiny camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a laptop carried in a backpack, a headset and a microphone. Designed by researchers at Wright State University, Tyflos converts the images recorded by the camera into verbal messages conveyed to the user.”
photo credit vision impaired student, rubik’s cube of doom
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Welcome to the March 24, 2010 edition of
blogging tips from expert bloggers
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Each week we gather together blogging tips from expert bloggers. Each blogger is challenged to present tools that are relevant, useful and effective. Busy bloggers need time-saving, easily implementable tips.
Do you have ideas or tools you’d like to list on this page? Send them in through the BlogCarnival link (small grey box). I’m looking forward to receiving your best posts!
community
- Annabel Candy presents Getting Over the Blogger’ 6 Month Itch posted at ProBlogger Blog Tips, saying, “The most important rule for successful blogging is to stick with it. I kept at it and now after a year I have over 1000 subscribers:)”
- Lucky Agarwal presents The easiest way to create a blog for dummies « Learning, Sharing, Collaborating posted at Learning, Sharing, Collaborating.
- Digerati Life presents Find The Best Web Host For Your Online Business posted at The Digerati Life
influential blogger
- Mariana Ashley presents Google Earth for Educators: 50 Exciting Ideas for the Classroom posted at Associate Degree – Facts and Information.
- GreatManagement presents 43 Blogger Tips What you should do after installing WordPress posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, “The blog post is simple really and shares with you exactly what the titles says 43 ideas for you to do after you have installed WordPress.”
making money online
- Leon N. presents The Science of Niche Internet Marketing posted at How to Build Residual Income, saying, “Anyone can put up a site but how many people can consistently make a mere $100 a month? Very few. Here’s what you need to know to hit that level of income and beyond.”
- BWL presents How to make money with a blog posted at Money in the Bible | Christian Personal Finance Blog, saying, “This is a 6,500 word article I wrote documenting how I make money with my blog…”
seo
- Ziki presents The Highest Paying AdSense Keywords List For “Domain Names” (March 2010) posted at Make Money with Youtube.
- axel presents Easy Steps To More Search Engine Traffic posted at axel g.
social media
- Web Radio Resource presents Fun with Blog Carnivals posted at Web Radio Resource, saying, “Blog Carnivals: Great marketing tool! the summery of your blog is shared all over, and people will come to your blog to read the rest.”
Would you like to be included in this blog carnival?
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- Feeling “Blogged Out?” [10 Pro Bloggers Share Their Advice on What to Do] (problogger.net)
- Rubik’s Cube Of Doom For The Blind (ubergizmo.com)
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Twitter: MeganJoyGirl
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This is awesome, and as I’m having my web site redone, I know I need to focus on making everything more visually accessible to those who don’t see as well as me. Thank you for this reminder, and for the good information contained in your post!
.-= Megan “JoyGirl!” Bord´s Last Fabulous Post blog ..Small Is The New Big: 9 Small Things You Can Do To Affect BIG Change =-.
Twitter: thatgirlisfunny
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Hi Megan,
I’m glad we were able to provide you with some good guidelines to consider before you got too far along with your web redesign
.-= Cheryl´s Last Fabulous Post blog ..Delicious or Deadly? Give Up Soft Drinks and Stay Young from the Inside Out =-.
I want to be a succesful online Marketier someday,thats why i really do my best visiting some site that truly can help to build more idea on how to make money on blogging.Ofcourse,i would be a patient on doing step by step process so that i can win what i want in online business..tnx for this blog!gl
.-= Jackie from Money Blogging´s Last Fabulous Post blog ..How To Avoid Getting Your Adsense Account Terminated =-.
Twitter: thatgirlisfunny
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Hi Jackie,
I’m glad that you found something helpful on this list. Stay tuned! I’ll have new lists every Wednesday.
.-= Cheryl´s Last Fabulous Post blog ..Delicious or Deadly? Give Up Soft Drinks and Stay Young from the Inside Out =-.
Twitter: Fendi Purses
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I like the style you took with this subject. It is not often that you find something so concise and informative.
Twitter: thatgirlisfunny
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Thank you
.-= Cheryl´s Last Fabulous Post blog ..Delicious or Deadly? Give Up Soft Drinks and Stay Young from the Inside Out =-.
Thanks for this post. I’d also like to add that making your site accessible to people who cannot see, would in turn benefit other persons with disabilities as well.
Twitter: thatgirlisfunny
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Hi Julius,
One good turn deserves another as the old saying goes. Where we make efforts to assist in one area, often sorts something out for other areas as well. Conversely, making adjustments to improve can sometimes cause ripples or bumps in other places on our blog too.
Whenever I add in a new plug-in, I make sure that the new one hasn’t caused a glitch somewhere else.
I think the lesson here is to be on the lookout on how to make our blogs more accessible to the greatest number of viewers. Whilst being as entertaining and informative as possible, of course
Hello Cheryl,
Making information accessible to as many persons as possible should indeed be the goal of every site owner. We have to accept though that no matter how we try, there will always be instances wherein some people would have difficulty accessing our site. I’m nonetheless sure that our visitors would see the effort we make if we do it with sincerity
.-= Julius´s Last Fabulous Post blog ..Learning About Web Accessibility Through Everyday Tasks =-.