Web Accessibility

Web Accessibility Plamena Nedelcheva
 
 
Sofia University
‘St Kliment Ohridski’
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics

 
                                                          
 
Web Accessibility

Plamena Petrova Nedelcheva
Information Systems FN: 71037
1 
 
Table of Contents
 
Introduction............................................................................. 3
Internet – an important part of the modern world ......................... 4
Types of disabilities that concern web design................................ 5

Deaf, hard-of-hearing, hearing-impaired .........................................5
Blind, visually-impaired, low-vision ................................................5
Mobility-impaired .........................................................................6
Learning-disabled ........................................................................7
W3C Proposed Recommendation................................................. 7

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0............................................7
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 ...............................8
The European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO) .............. 12
Web Accessibility is not only about the disabled people................ 14
Conclusion............................................................................. 15
Glossary................................................................................ 16
References ............................................................................ 18
  2 
 
 
Introduction
 
Today Internet plays a great role in our everyday life. We use it to read
news, find information, buy products, send mail, stay in touch with friends,
entertain ourselves, etc. Web pages and web content is designed to grab
out attention and keep us interested. Web designers work to make our
experience better and web developers try to make the web as interactive
as possible. Colors, images, sounds, videos, flash all make Internet as
appealing as it is.
Usually there is one group of people that is not taken in consideration

by designers when creating websites. This is the group of the people with
disabilities. Disability may involve physical impairment, sensory
impairment, cognitive or intellectual impairment, mental disorder (also
known as psychiatric or psychosocial disability), or various types of chronic
disease.
There are organizations that put together recommendations for web

accessibility. Those include The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that is
part of The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and The European Internet
Accessibility Observatory (EIAO).
3 
 
Internet – an important part of the modern world

 
Today most people have Internet access – at home, work, school,
libraries, and Internet cafes. In 2008, the number of Internet users in the
world is 1,463,632,361, which is 21,9% of the world’s population.1 The
Internet users in the European Union are 293,070,327, which is 59,9%. And
the Internet users in Bulgaria are 4,000,000, which is 55,1% of the
population.
What is the number of Internet users that are people with disabilities?
Indeed they are a small part of the Internet users but they deserve a better
and easier access to web content. It is the job of web designers to make
websites accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including
blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities,
cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech difficulties, photosensitivity
and combinations of these2. Those disabilities make it harder for people to
take full advantage of the Internet but by adding in a few simple
accessibility features web designers can make it easier for those people to
use the web content.
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        
1 See Wikipedia’s list of Internet users by countries (2008) 
2 See Wikipedia‐ Disability 
 
4 
 
Types of disabilities that concern web design
Deaf, hard-of-hearing, hearing-impaired

Everyone with significantly impaired hearing is deaf3 in a generic sense.
But someone with a lower degree of impairment may be more accurately
called hard-of-hearing. Hearing-impaired is a more medical-sounding term.
Deaf people tend to have the least hearing, they are the most apt to use
whatever sign language or language is native to their region.
Hard-of-hearing4 people tend to have a greater degree of usable hearing

than deaf people. Most deaf, hard-of-hearing, or hearing-impaired hearing
either now have or used to have some actual hearing. In addition, a late-
deafened person lost his or her hearing in adulthood or at least after
completely learning a spoken language.
Deaf users are able to access the Internet in much the same way as non-
deaf people with one key exception — audio content. If it’s a key function of
a website for people to be able to hear a message, then a written transcripts
should be provided at the very least.
Blind, visually-impaired, low-vision

Everyone with significantly impaired vision is blind in a generic sense. But
someone with a lower degree of impairment may be more accurately called
visually-impaired.
                                                        
3 See Deaf 
4 See Joe Clark (2007) 
5 
 
Not many people with any kind of visual impairment read Braille –
estimates run as low as 10%. Visual impairment is largely a condition of
age; there are not that many very young blind or visually-impaired people.
Web users who have no sight at all may utilize a screen reader, which
reads the content of the web page, or rather the HTML, back to them. This
software, which sits between the user and the browser, sifts through the
HTML markup and the technology deciphers what needs to be read aloud
and what should be ignored.
To take full advantage of the Internet, users with partial or poor sight need
to be able to enlarge the text on web pages. Opera, IE5 Macintosh Edition,
Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox, Konqueror, Safari, and all other browsers but one
provide text resizing widgets that work no matter what method a designer
has been used to specify type size.
But for IE/Windows users to be able to resize text, you must specify the font
size in terms of %, em or a relative value (small, medium, etc.) or use a
basic or advanced style sheet switcher to provide this functionality.
Users with poor vision may also use a screen magnifier. 
Mobility-impaired
People with mobility impairments have difficulty moving one or more
parts of the body. Where Web design is concerned, a mobility impairment
that affects use of a computer or device (chiefly a disability involving the
hands and/or arms) is really the only relevant disability.
Those users usually browse the contents of a web site via a keyboard only
so it is essential that the design is easy to navigate only with the Tab, Shift-
Tab, and the Return keys.
  6 
 
 
Learning-disabled
Learning disabilities affect the perception, processing, understanding, and
reception of information and other stimuli. Dyslexia is the most famous
learning disability (it causes confusion in reading and a few other tasks), but
there are many others. You may also run across the term cognitive
disabilities, where cognitive refers to the functions of the brain (“the mental
process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception,
reasoning, and judgment”).
W3C Proposed Recommendations

 
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the regulating organization

that issues guidelines and recommendations about web standards. The Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI)5 is a working group part of the W3C responsible
for issuing Web Accessibility guidelines. Products of their work are the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and 2.0
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

 
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.06 was issued on 5 may 1999.
It consists of 14 guidelines that are intended to make Web content
accessible to people with disabilities.  
                                                        
5 See WAI 
6 See W3C’s WCAG 1.0 (1999) 
7 
 
 
WCAG 1.0 Guidelines:
• Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
• Don't rely on color alone.
• Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
• Clarify natural language usage
• Create tables that transform gracefully.
• Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
• Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
• Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
• Design for device-independence.
• Use interim solutions.
• Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
• Provide context and orientation information.
• Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
• Ensure that documents are clear and simple.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.07 was published on 3
November 2008. It consists of 4 main principles that provide the foundation
for Web accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
                                                        
7 See W3C’s WCAG 2.0 (2008) 
  8 
 
 
The 12 guidelines provide the basic goals that authors should work toward in
order to make content more accessible to users with different disabilities.
For each guideline, testable success criteria are provided to allow WCAG 2.0
to be used where requirements and conformance testing are necessary such
as in design specification, purchasing, regulation, and contractual
agreements. For each of the guidelines and success criteria in the WCAG 2.0
document itself, the working group has also documented a wide variety of
techniques. The techniques are informative and fall into two categories:
those that are sufficient for meeting the success criteria and those that are
"advisory." The advisory techniques go beyond what is required by the
individual success criteria and allow authors to better address the guidelines.
Some advisory techniques address accessibility barriers that are not covered
by the testable success criteria.
Principle 1: Perceivable - Information and user interface components must

be presentable to users in ways they can perceive
Guideline 1.1 Text Alternatives: Provide text alternatives for any non-text
content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large
print, Braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
For example, an ‘alt’ attribute should be used in the ‘img’ tag for labeling
images so that a blind person could use a text-to-speech program (img
src=”… “ alt =”….”)
Guideline 1.2 Time-based Media: Provide alternatives for time-based media
Guideline 1.3 Adaptable: Create content that can be presented in different

ways (for example simpler layout ) without losing information or structure
People that are visually-impaired or with low sight may choose to ignore
images or styles on the web page so it should be created in such a way so
that no information is lost because of that.
9 
 
Guideline 1.4 Distinguishable: Make it easier for users to see and hear
content including separating foreground from background
Contrasting colors should be used for foreground and background so that

it is easier for the user to read he contents of the page. Also images of
text should be avoided unless a particular presentation of text is essential
to the information being conveyed.
Principle 2: Operable - User interface components and navigation must be

operable
Guideline 2.1 Keyboard Accessible: Make all functionality available from a

keyboard
Guideline 2.2 Enough Time: Provide users enough time to read and use
content
Guideline 2.3 Seizures: Do not design content in a way that is known to

cause seizures
Blinking or flashing elements should not be used since they can cause
seizures.
Guideline 2.4 Navigable: Provide ways to help users navigate, find content
and determine where they are
Web pages must have titles that describe topic or purpose. The purpose of
each link can be determined from the link text alone.
Principle 3: Understandable - Information and the operation of user

interface must be understandable
Guideline 3.1 Readable: Make text content readable and understandable
  10 
 
 
The default human language of each Web page can be programmatically
determined via the lang attribute in the html tag (<html lang= “en-US”>).
Guideline 3.2 Predictable: Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable
ways
Navigational mechanisms (menus) that are repeated on multiple Web

pages should occur in the same relative order each time they are
repeated.
Guideline 3.3 Input Assistance: Help users avoid and correct mistakes
Principle 4: Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be

interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive
technologies
Captioning8 for online video and transcripts for video and audio content
should be provided for deaf people.
Guideline 4.1 Compatible: Maximize compatibility with current and future

user agents, including assistive technologies
For all user interface components (form elements, links and components
generated by scripts), the name and role can be programmatically
determined; states, properties, and values that can be set by the user can
be programmatically set.
                                                        
8 See Joe Clark (2008) 
11 
 
The European Internet Accessibility Observatory

(EIAO)
The European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO)9 was founded in
September 2004. Their main purpose is assessing the accessibility of
European web sites and participating in a cluster developing a European
Accessibility Methodology. On 3 December 2007 EIAO issued Unified Web
Evaluation Methodology (UWEM 1.2)10, which is based on W3C’s WCAG 2.0.
The European Internet Accessibility Observatory consist of:
• A web crawler exploring and identifying available resources on each

web site. The crawler is based on the Open Source Web Crawler
HarvestMan.
• A URL repository storing web site information such as a list of pages

available.
• A sampler randomly selecting pages from the URL repository to be

evaluated by the web accessibility metrics.
• A set of web accessibility metrics (WAMs) reporting accessibility

problems according to the Unified Web Evaluation Methodology
(UWEM).
• A Data Warehouse providing on-line access to the collected data via an

online reporting tool.
Benchmarking scores by country have been determined according to

UWEM 1.2. The results from the first evaluation, carried out in February,
11
March and April 2008 are shown in the following table (figure 1).
                                                        
9 See EIAO 
10 See UWEM 1.2 (2007) 
11 See Accessibility Benchmarking Scores 
12 
 
Number of Percentag
Ranking Country evaluated e of fail Score Description
web sites tests
1 United Kingdom 8 17% Some Accessibility Tests Failed
2 Sweden 165 20% Some Accessibility Tests Failed
3 Czech Republic 46 21% Some Accessibility Tests Failed
4 Netherlands 131 22% Some Accessibility Tests Failed
5 Denmark 148 23% Some Accessibility Tests Failed
6 Ireland 48 24% Some Accessibility Tests Failed
7 Iceland 70 25% Some Accessibility Tests Failed
8 Germany 198 26% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
9 Italy 62 26% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
10 Poland 14 27% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
11 Norway 105 27% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
12 EU level sites 142 28% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
13 Austria 197 28% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
14 Slovenia 36 28% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
15 Switzerland 354 29% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
16 Portugal 51 30% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
17 France 258 30% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
18 Cyprus 28 31% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
19 Belgium 187 31% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
20 Hungary 171 32% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
21 Luxembourg 73 34% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
22 Romania 16 34% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
23 Spain 22 35% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
24 Bulgaria 7 38% Many Accessibility Tests Failed
Many Accessibility Tests

Europe Average 2198 28%
Failed
Figure 1 - Results from the first evaluation, carried out in February, March and April
2008
13 
 
Web Accessibility is not only about the disabled
people
PDAs, SmartPhones and Mobile Devices
The number of people accessing the Internet from handheld devices is

increasing at a massive rate —in Western Europe in 2008 alone there’ll be
an estimated 58 million PDAs sold.
Handheld devices generally have bad support for large images,

JavaScript, Flash and even CSS. Their width can be as small as 120px with
horizontal scrolling not an option. All of these make it difficult to experience
the web page’s content properly and as it was intended by the web designer.
So it is useful to base the web page’s structure on a relative scaling rather

than fixed measurements. It’s also useful not to depend on images to deliver
text since some users may choose not to load images.
JavaScript
Approximately 6% of web users are surfing the web with no support for
JavaScript. This could be because they’re using a browser that doesn’t
support JavaScript (such as the text-only Lynx browser) or they’ve turned
JavaScript off for security or to avoid popups.
Slow Connections
Users on slow connections might turn images off to enable a quicker

download time. Some browsers, such as the Lynx browser do not display
images at all. The ALT tag should be used so that those users can get
information about the image.
  14 
 
Conclusion
 
The Internet is a great source of information and knowledge available to
everyone via computer r mobile device and Internet connection. Most people
use Web content daily for various purposes. But there are people with
different impairments that cannot use Web pages the way other people do.
They usually need assistance from software to see or head the content of
the Web site. By following a few simple guidelines proposed by various
organizations that regulate Internet content, the people who make web
pages can make it easier for people with impairments to use and enjoy web
content.
15 
 
Glossary
 
Accessible - Content is accessible when it may be used by someone with a
disability.
Assistive technology - Software or hardware that has been specifically

designed to assist people with disabilities in carrying out daily activities.
Assistive technology includes wheelchairs, reading machines, devices for
grasping, etc. In the area of Web Accessibility, common software-based
assistive technologies include screen readers, screen magnifiers, speech
synthesizers, and voice input software that operate in conjunction with
graphical desktop browsers (among other user agents). Hardware assistive
technologies include alternative keyboards and pointing devices.
Braille - Braille uses six raised dots in different patterns to represent letters
and numbers to be read by people who are blind with their fingertips.
Captions - Synchronized visual and/or text alternative for both speech and
non-speech audio information needed to understand the media content.
Device independent - Users must be able to interact with a user agent

(and the document it renders) using the supported input and output devices
of their choice and according to their needs. Input devices may include
pointing devices, keyboards, Braille devices, head wands, microphones, and
others. Output devices may include monitors, speech synthesizers, and
Braille devices.
Natural Language - Spoken, written, or signed human languages such as

French, Japanese, American Sign Language, and Braille.
Image of text - Text that has been rendered in a non-text form (e.g. an
image) in order to achieve a particular visual effect.
Keyboard interface - Interface used by software to obtain keystroke input.
16 
 
 
Label - Text or other component with a text alternative that is presented to
a user to identify a component within Web content.
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) - A PDA is a small, portable computing

device. Most PDAs are used to track personal data such as calendars,
contacts, and electronic mail. A PDA is generally a handheld device with a
small screen that allows input from various sources.
Programmatically set - Set by software using methods that are supported

by user agents, including assistive technologies.
Screen reader - A software program that reads the contents of the screen
aloud to a user. Screen readers are used primarily by individuals who are
blind. Screen readers can usually only read text that is printed, not painted,
to the screen.
Seizure - A seizure is a sudden change in behavior due to abnormal

electrical activity in the brain.
Text alternative - Text that is programmatically associated with non-text

content or referred to from text that is programmatically associated with
non-text content.
User agent - Software to access Web content, including desktop graphical

browsers, text browsers, voice browsers, mobile phones, multimedia players,
plug-ins, and some software assistive technologies used in conjunction with
browsers such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and voice recognition
software.
17 
 
References
 
W3C Proposed Recommendation - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
W3C Proposed Recommendation - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

(WCAG) 2.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) http://www.w3.org/WAI/
Trenton Moss, ‘What Is Web Accessibility?’

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/wiwa
Joe Clark, ‘Building Accessible Websites’ (2007)
http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/
Wikipedia – Disability http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disabilities
Wikipedia -Web Accessibility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility
Wikipedia- Hearing Impairment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf
Mobility Impairment http://library.thinkquest.org/11799/data/mobility.html
Illinois Center for Information Technology Accessibility -

http://html.cita.uiuc.edu/
Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act Implementation Guidelines

for Web-Based Information and Applications 1.0 -
http://www.dhs.state.il.us/IITAA/IITAAWebImplementationGuidelines.html
European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO) - http://www.eiao.net/
Preliminary European Accessibility Benchmarking Scores

http://www.eiao.net/
Joe Clark, ‘This is How the Web Gets Regulated’ (2008)-

http://alistapart.com/articles/thisishowthewebgetsregulated
18 
 
 
Wikipedia - List of countries by number of Internet users -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_internet_users
The European Internet Accessibility Observatory - http://www.eiao.net/
Unified Web Evaluation Methodology version 1.2 -

http://www.wabcluster.org/uwem1_2/

 
 
 
19 

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Web Accessibility Plamena Nedelcheva

‘St Kliment Ohridski’

Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics

Information Systems FN: 71037

Internet – an important part of the modern world ......................... 4

Types of disabilities that concern web design................................ 5

W3C Proposed Recommendation................................................. 7

The European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO) .............. 12

Web Accessibility is not only about the disabled people................ 14

Usually there is one group of people that is not taken in consideration

There are organizations that put together recommendations for web

Internet – an important part of the modern world

Types of disabilities that concern web design

Deaf, hard-of-hearing, hearing-impaired

Hard-of-hearing4 people tend to have a greater degree of usable hearing

Blind, visually-impaired, low-vision

Users with poor vision may also use a screen magnifier.

W3C Proposed Recommendations

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the regulating organization

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

WCAG 1.0 Guidelines:

• Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.

• Don't rely on color alone.

• Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.

• Clarify natural language usage

• Create tables that transform gracefully.

• Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.

• Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.

• Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.

• Design for device-independence.

• Use interim solutions.

• Use W3C technologies and guidelines.

• Provide context and orientation information.

• Provide clear navigation mechanisms.

• Ensure that documents are clear and simple.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

Principle 1: Perceivable - Information and user interface components must

Guideline 1.2 Time-based Media: Provide alternatives for time-based media

Guideline 1.3 Adaptable: Create content that can be presented in different

Contrasting colors should be used for foreground and background so that

Principle 2: Operable - User interface components and navigation must be

Guideline 2.1 Keyboard Accessible: Make all functionality available from a

Guideline 2.3 Seizures: Do not design content in a way that is known to

Principle 3: Understandable - Information and the operation of user

Guideline 3.1 Readable: Make text content readable and understandable

Navigational mechanisms (menus) that are repeated on multiple Web

Principle 4: Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be

Guideline 4.1 Compatible: Maximize compatibility with current and future

The European Internet Accessibility Observatory

The European Internet Accessibility Observatory consist of:

• A web crawler exploring and identifying available resources on each

• A URL repository storing web site information such as a list of pages

• A sampler randomly selecting pages from the URL repository to be

• A set of web accessibility metrics (WAMs) reporting accessibility

• A Data Warehouse providing on-line access to the collected data via an

Benchmarking scores by country have been determined according to

11 See Accessibility Benchmarking Scores

1 United Kingdom 8 17% Some Accessibility Tests Failed

2 Sweden 165 20% Some Accessibility Tests Failed

3 Czech Republic 46 21% Some Accessibility Tests Failed

4 Netherlands 131 22% Some Accessibility Tests Failed

5 Denmark 148 23% Some Accessibility Tests Failed

6 Ireland 48 24% Some Accessibility Tests Failed

Users with poor vision may also use a screen magnifier. 

11 See Accessibility Benchmarking Scores 