Week 7 Lead Scotland's Thinking Digitally course: Accessibility

This week we were discussing the accessibility of digital artefacts.  Heres a flavour of our discussions.

Is your digital artefact accessible?  What does that mean? JISC, amongst others, seek to answer the question; what is website accessibility?  We strive to be inclusive practitioners offline.  How do we take this approach online and apply it when producing digital content?

How do disabled people access websites?  The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative have gathered stories from disabled people with a range of impairments who access websites in different ways, e.g. a blind person may use a screenreader package which basically reads out what is on screen.

Common Knowledge is a good example of an organisation which has given thought to ways by which they can make their website accessible to their targeted audience of people with learning difficulties, e.g. large cursor on entry to site, the opportunity to listen to information as well as read it, lots of appealing photographs.

Some people who access your artefact may be sophisticated users of the internet and of assistive technology and some may be at the start of their own digital journey.  You could raise awareness of different ways by which people access the internet via your artefact to promote inclusion.  The BBC's my web my way and Ability Net's My Computer My Way encourage individuals to self assess their own needs and offer practical tips about making adjustments to standard settings to improve accessibility are offered.

How do I know if my artefact is accessible? The W3C Web Accessbility initiative have a site with rich information and details about ways by which you can evaluate the accessibility of your artefact. For example if you put the URL of your artefact into Wave it will highlight potential areas that you can reflect on changing to improve the accessibility of your artefact, e.g. having alt text for images. Please be aware that automated checks are no substitute for involving people with a range of impairments in testing your artefact to provide a much needed human perspective.

Next week we're doing a show and tell and the blog will reflect our conversations about usability.