Read the text and do the exercises below.

Anna Faszcza Ready to Get Connected

Nowadays, the Web is essential to all people as they use it at work, school, or on the road. There are over one billion people with disabilities around the world, which makes about 15‑20 percent of the whole population. The United Nation Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines access to informationaccess to informationaccess to information as a human righthuman righthuman right. Many countries globally started to implement Web accessibility standards as an essential option for the disabled and, at the same time, useful for all.

(1)
Web accessibilityWeb accessibilityWeb accessibility, or eAccessibility, means that everyone can use it equally. It includes people with mental, physical disabilities or impairmentsimpairments [impairment]impairments, situational disabilities, socio‑economic limitations and people with no disabilities as well. The rule is as simple as that: the more accurately designed, developed and edited sites are, the more equal access to information for all users is. We can divide web visitors into the following categories:

• With visual disabilitiesvisual disabilities [visual disability]visual disabilities: low vision, blindness, colour blindnesscolour blindnesscolour blindness.

• With auditory disabilitiesauditory disabilities [auditory disability]auditory disabilities: deafness, hard of hearing.

• With cognitive and neurological disabilitiescognitive and neurological disabilities [cognitive and neurological disability]cognitive and neurological disabilities: learning disabilities, memory impairment, sclerosis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, seizure disorder.

• With physical and motor disabilitiesphysical and motor disabilities [physical and motor disability]physical and motor disabilities: arthritis, amputation, muscular dystrophy.

• With other experiences: slow Internet connection, loud or busy environment.

(2)
A person without arms can still use a computer by means ofby means ofby means of a mouthstick stylusmouthstick stylusmouthstick stylus to type. A person with hearing impairment uses captionscaptions [caption]captions to watch videos, and a person with poor vision may use a screen readerscreen readerscreen reader to read out loud what’s on the screen. Also headings, labels, or other code support accessibility and improve the quality. There are web visitors with other visual disabilities, such as blindness or colour blindness, for whom brightness and contrast factors matter.

(3)
That is possible to do as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed standards to follow, such as Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) with its four principles, to make sure that websites are able to meet top requirements. Web technologies, such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), provide supportprovide supportprovide support for many accessibility features. HTML is the standard markup language for Web pages. You can create your own Website with it. Other features provide text alternativestext alternatives [text alternative]text alternatives for images, which are read aloud by screen readers and used by search engines. All of these show the great importance of having semantic heading structures to ensure proper colour contrast to providing text alternatives for video.

(4)

• Perceivable; information should be introduced and presented to the users in the way that everybody can easily recognise so that they can see or hear, for instance by providing text alternatives for non‑text content.

• Operable; all the functionality must be available from the keyboard so people can use the computer by typing or by voice.

• Understandable; people can get clear and simple language.

• RobustrobustRobust; content must be interpreted reliably by all user ages and people can get and use assistive technologiesassistive technologies [assistive technology]assistive technologies.

(5)
Many people struggle with a vast number of  barriersvast number of barriersa vast number of  barriers to communication and interaction. The web removes these barriers and lets people use the internet despite poor hearing, movement or sight difficulties and many other disabilities in order not to excludeexcludeexclude them from society.

All in all, many people face various obstacles not only in the physical world but also in the virtual one and that is why more and more is done to make websites and online content more accessible for everybody.

1 Źródło: Anna Faszcza, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.