.Now with the trickle of data from a 1999 Bureau of the Census which surveyed measures of "functional limitation in seeing," two levels of severity have emerged: people with more severe impairments who were unable to see words and letters and print and who were less likely to use the internet and regular computers and those with less severe limitations and were more likely to use the Internet and computers on a regular basis. While more than seven million American's fall into both categories, the magnitude of the problem of "seeing" may be explained in the number of households owning computers with no limitations in "seeing" of which 56% own computers and only 35% used the Internet.
You who are without disABILITIES are allowed, to have more information and more connected to the world around them and in contact with people of similar interests through the use of computers and access to the Internet. However, the potential impact is even greater for individuals with disABILITIES as our world is rapidly converting to a digitalized format. Closing the digital divide for people with disABILITIES requires web builders to understand restraints on "seeing" while using computers and the Internet.
While reading guidelines and creating a web page, the process of making your pages accessible will be more comprehensible if you understand how people with visual impairments are likely to visit your site. What technology is in use and how it works has been a significant part of making guidelines that meet the needs of both web page developers and web page users.
Not all users with visual impairments use speech to access your web site. Some use a screen magnification program. Other users with enough sight to read much of the text on the screen without additional equipment or software often adjust the colors and sizes of text and icons in order to make them more visible.
Vision impairments include but are not limited to Mascular Degeneration, blindness, cataracts and Diabetic Retinopathy. For a detailed list of "seeing" problems which may affect your web site visitors go to the Karolinska Institute.
Dyslexia is now firmly established as a congenital and developmental condition. Its cause has not been fully confirmed but the effect is to create neurological anomalies in the brain. About 60% of dyslexic people have phonological difficulties, that is, they find it difficult to sort out the sounds with words. This means that they have problems with reading, writing and spelling. Many dyslexic people enjoy lateral thinking abilities and need to be identified and taught, to enable them to release their talents in wide ranging careers. Perhaps your web site creation once "enabled" may provide such an opportunity for their empowerment.
Aphasia is most often the result of stroke or head injury, but can also occur in other neurological disorders, such as brain tumor or Alzheimer disease.
When the median nerve located in the wrist is compressed and pressure is most noticeable when the wrist is fully extended or flexed. Some believe that carpal tunnel syndrome is related to computer use, although there is no proven connection. But having to use a mouse on a continuous basis can prove to be painful.
So you followed the WAI guidelines and you hope your site is accessible using some of the most elementary and easiest to understand aspects of a site that contribute to accessibility to users of assistive technology and those who do not use any assistance, but are thankful for your enlightenment and what has been accomplished to make your web site more accessible. Now you are a "teckie."
Because you labeled everything on your web site with Alt-text and gave a reason for the pictures, your image maps have Alt-text for each "click able" region and those spacer graphics and other ones which not meaningful is where you put space between the quotes of the Alt-text so users did not have their train of thought disrupted by irrelevant information.
You also labeled the structure of your web site and placed title references for additional and meaningful information, because your visitors with disABILITIES would not get lost, even though some consider these text labels unappealing.
Bless you for not putting your pages in columns, for you must have read that a text reader reads right to left, top to bottom, and as for frames, you left them by the wayside because they were a road block to accessibility.
Then last but not least you understand that "older" technology usually means six months to a year old and you knew that users of assistive technology do not yet support the newer versions, so even the most web-savvy and cutting-edge users will not be able to access some of the on-the-edge exciting features you thought about using
Screen readers are used primarily by the visually impaired who have some physical disABILITY that prevents them from seeing the information on the screen, which could be total blindness, Mascular Degeneration or a host of other eye ailments.
Screen readers can also be useful for people who can see, but do not necessarily comprehend visual information well. One such disABILITY is dyslexia. Another such disABILITY is aphasia. In addition, people can listen and read simultaneous, and the dual modes of input can help people who have difficulty comprehending written language alone. As with any assistive technology, screen readers can benefit many more people than the audience it was originally intended for. Potential users for screen readers include students of pronunciation, people learning languages with orthography different from their native language and people learning to read.
We have a section on screen readers and detail HTML techniques here..
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