About Accessibility

Accessibility Questions

Questions about accessibility testing, standards and best methodologies are still in the air as more and more people are getting to know about accessibility and its related discussion topics. The simplest of these questions could be the art of testing for accessibility. But, how do we test accessibility? Who does it? What tools are required and in the end are the results optimal?

An eye witnessed so called accessibility test was carried out in a manner neither you nor I would approve. I knew a guy in my university called Joe. He was visually impaired and thus used a lot of assistive technologies to help him navigate the web world. Due to his immense dedication and urge of learning how to make his own way out, he was always experimenting with the new inventions that came up day after day to assist people facing problems similar to his. He managed to have a known arena of his own where he had the best known practices at his service to make him competent with the outside world. His was a struggle that he thought was over. People new or old to the concept of accessibility, were always seeking his advice and awaiting his knowledgeable suggestions to move ahead in their tasks in the related matter. He was a guru – who talked about accessibility and made aware a lot of unknown hidden facts that were not known to the workers dealing directly or in-directly with accessibility in that university.

One of the most common ways to test documents and web pages was using the results of the tests carried out by him. He was always given a preference when it came to talk about the issues that kept popping up with any person that has accessibility issues. It soon became a dictatorship as far as the testing for accessible content was taken into account.

However, no one realized the he uses the assistive technology as he is visually impaired and cannot perceive the

Accessible Web surfer

actual document. What he visions in his thoughts is just what the technology produces as an output. He least understood that the technology could be producing a document that is not similar to the original one, when one sees it. Thus what went wrong in his case was the blind faith that any assistance that he uses to read through his documents and web pages were creating and translating a page 100 percent correctly and thus he had a true translation of the original content.

The actual assessment of the documents, were never fully managed and obtained. The illusion that Joe was doing a perfect job was questioned by a number of people working with the accessibility departments. However, it was a little difficult to make people understand the disadvantages of these testing experiments that were conducted and implemented. It was such an obvious fact that a person who requires assistance for his navigation of web pages can tell people who have sound senses about the errors that the web page might have, though they forgot that they have a better command over their senses.

Accessibility assessment is a huge task and you are responsible for what people hear and interpret. This translation from the visual content to the audible mode has to be precise, as it would involve educational institutions that are using these technologies available to support their distinguished users. Thus, accessibility testing can never be complete and at this point of time is never 100 percent. But we have to strive hard to achieve the highest amount possible with the limitations and advances that we have today.