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Designing Web Pages for Everyone
Ironically, while the web has greatly broadened our audience, the way our pages are designed may needlessly exclude people
By James Bailey
UO Adaptive Technology Adviser
jbailey@darkwing.uoregon.edu
The web makes university information available all over the world. UO web sites disseminate information ranging from the schedule of classes to class syllabi to student publications, and a person in Boston can browse our catalog with the same ease as a person in Eugene. Likewise, our distance education efforts use the web to offer classes to students from around the state and around the world.
Ironically, while the web has greatly broadened our audience, the way our pages are designed may needlessly exclude people. A poorly designed page may prohibit access to people with disabilities and the adaptive technology they use.
Most of the examples just mentioned--the catalog, the schedule of classes, etc.--are official university documents, and as such must be made accessible to people with disabilities. With traditional print, accessibility usually means converting to braille, audiotape, or large print. The web offers publishers the possibility of creating documents that are universally accessible. No alternative format or conversions are needed.
The only flaw in this otherwise promising picture is that web pages must be created to be accessible, and some designers aren't bothering to do so. While this may be acceptable in private commercial web sites (and that is starting to change), the university operates under stricter legal requirements than does the private sector. As an institution of higher education, we have a legal obligation to provide our documents, including web pages, in an accessible format. Offering an accessible site, serving all of our students, and meeting our legal obligations are just matter of following accessible design protocols when creating our web pages. There was time when such protocols were scarce, but now there is much information available to web designers about accessible design.
If you are designing a university web site, you should familiarize yourself with the accessible design issues and implement them from the beginning.
"Accessibility validators." Be cautious of the various "accessibility validators." Bobby, a popular validator, is good as far as it goes, but there are aspects of the page that it completely ignores. Being "Bobby Approved" is a good start, but it does not ensure accessibility.
Creating online educational delivery sites. When using tools such as Blackboard to create an online educational delivery site, be sure the resulting site meets accessibility standards. Some tools completely ignore this aspect of academic web design and can leave you with an unusable site. Rather than just reading specifications, test how the site builder integrates accessible design issues.
Hiring a web designer. If you are hiring a web designer, be sure he or she is fully aware of accessible design protocols. The issue of accessible web design has now been around long enough that most professional web designers should be able to implement it on your site.
On a much larger scale, if you are contracting with an outside "partner" to create a university web site, then it is absolutely essential that your contract specify that the provider will be responsible for accessible design issues.
The fact that you bought an inaccessible product and the provider will not let you alter the original code does not mitigate your legal obligation to provide accessibility. You could end up with an expensive site you can't use.
Access to educational material is federally regulated, and the university may be held liable in cases where students have been denied access to web information on the basis of a disability. At the UO, students who have encountered inaccessible local sites have informed Disability Services, and those sites were quickly redesigned to be accessible.
Designing our web sites to include all web users just makes sense. With planning and knowledge of the issues, creating accessible web pages is really straightforward.
Editor's Note: James Bailey is the university's Adaptive Technology Adviser and assists with questions of accessible web design. You may contact him by calling 346-1076 or writing jbailey@darkwing.uoregon.edu For a list of resources for this article, as well as a list of accessible design sites, see http://adaptive-tech.uoregon.edu/article.html