Dr Andrew Arch [HREF1], Manager Internet Development, Vision Australia Foundation [HREF2] , 454 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong, Victoria, 3144. Andrew.Arch@visionaustralia.org.au
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are generally considered to be applicable only for people with disabilities, whereas many of the Checkpoints in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are actually general usability requirements and a number of others are equally applicable to other sections of the community, e.g. rural Australians, new Australians, new users, techno-phobes, technologically disadvantaged, and techno-freaks with the latest 'toys'. The paper highlights the fact that over half the Accessibility checkpoints benefit those without a disability as much as people with disabilities.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) (Chisholm, et al, 1999a) were developed primarily to help ensure that people with disabilities are not part of the digital divide that has been created by the advent of the Web as the increasingly preferred means of information and service delivery by Government, banks and other sectors.
Most developers and designers who come across them assume they are exclusively for people with disabilities and will reduce the appeal of their designs to the masses. However, as we shall shortly see, Jacob Nielsen or many other usability or computer-human interaction experts could have easily developed many of the guidelines, and over half of the checkpoints associated with these guidelines have applicability beyond making the web accessible to people with disabilities.
The Web Accessibility Initiative themselves have declared the guidelines to have wider applicability than just assisting people with disabilities.
WCAG 1.0 was released in May 1999 after development and discussion from early 1998. The Guidelines have not changed since release, although nine small errata have been issued (W3C, 2001a). The Techniques (W3C, 2001b) documents that have been released have reflected some of the changes in technology since 1999, e.g. Scalable Vector Graphics (McCathieNevile and Koivunen, 2000).
WCAG 1.0 contains fourteen guidelines:
There are sixty-five checkpoints organised within three priority levels (Chisholm et al 1999b):
"Each checkpoint has a priority level assigned by the Working Group based on the checkpoint's impact on accessibility.
Priority 1
A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.
Priority 2
A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.
Priority 3
A Web content developer may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to Web documents"
Thirty-eight - over half - of these checkpoints, as discussed below, could be considered as addressing general usability issues for all or some people regardless of ability.
The last census put Australia's population at just over 19 million people, with two thirds of these living in our capital cities (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002). The final "Use of the Internet by Households" survey (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2000) by the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in November 2000 showed that over half the Australian population had a computer at home, but only a little over a third had the Internet connected. While over 50% of all adults accessed the Internet, only 19% of those over 55 years did so. In the metropolitan areas 52% of adults accessed the web; in regional Australia only 44% did.
Household Computer and Internet Access 1998-2000
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2000)
In rural Australia, 58% of farms used a computer but only 34% used the Internet as at mid-2000 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). To exacerbate the digital divide that exists between metro and rural Australia the speed of access for 40% of rural Australians is no-where near the 14.4 kbps estimated to be required for adequate access to complex web pages and e-commerce (Curtin, 2001). Due to this poor telecommunications infrastructure, it was estimated in early 2000 that over 30% of rural users browsed the 'net with their graphics turned off (Groves, 2000).
Usability rules the web (Nielsen, 2000). With millions of web pages out there, competition among sites is tremendous and users are presented with a large number of choices. If users can't figure out how to use a site within a few minutes - they leave!
If they can't operate your e-commerce area - they leave, and you've lost sales! (Nielsen, 2001)
If they have to wait forever for it to load - they leave! (Groves, 2000)
If the content is unreadable - they leave! (Regional Support Centre for London, 2002)
Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience: "users spend most of their time on other sites, so that's where they form their expectations for how the Web works" (Nielsen, 1999). So, consistent and familiar navigation is important! Poor navigation loses users (Fleming, 1998).
What you see isn't necessarily what your users will get! (Richmond, et al, no date)
All this points to improving usability if you want your website to be used by the widest possible number of users - the WCAG provides one set of usability guidelines to include in your web design toolkit.
The folowing discussion is presented under each usability related WCAG 1.0 checkpoint and in the WCAG priority order.
The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation report from early 2000 (Groves, 2000) estimated that over 30% of rural users browse the web at speeds of less than 9,600 bps and that the inclusion of 'ALTernative' text for these users is vitally important. It was also considered important for users browsing at 14,400 bps as the ALT text displays ahead of the graphics and allows the user to visually 'scan' the page without necessarily waiting for the graphics to load. The report found that over 50% of the Australian agricultural sites listed in the Web version of "The Australian Farmer's Guide to the Internet" as at August 1999 had at least some substantial images on their home pages without ALT text.
Many large corporates disable programmatic elements such as JAVA, VBScript and even JavaScript in an attempt to restrict staffs browsing habits during work and due to concern about virus attacks. Locked down corporate desktops are common and the ability to install Flash, Shockwave, Quicktime or even Acrobat is limited. Other users with old machinery or slow telecommunications infrastructure also experience difficulty with not only downloading the applets, but also downloading the required plugins, or even running the applet in the plugin useably. Text equivalents for multimedia files and PDF documents will ensure the widest audience reach and include those with limited technical capacity.
Again, rural Australians are disadvantaged - if server-side image maps are used without redundant text-links, then with graphics off they will be totally inaccessible and the content linked to from the image-map will be unavailable to these users. If client-side image maps are used, then ALT text must be included for the linked image 'hot-spots', or the users browsing with graphics off will still be unable to access the intended target.
Decreasing sensitivity as the eye ages greatly affects colour sensitivity (Agelight, 2001) and colour blindness is known to affect around 8% of the male population. With older Australians making up the fastest growing demographic on the 'net and the baby-boomers reaching retirement age, we have a significant proportion of the potential audience who may find your site less usable if you rely on colour to indicate key elements such as 'sale' items in your catalogue. Even removing the underline from the links on your page may make your links unrecognisable as the ability to differentiate between blue and black declines.
Furthermore, there are a select group of 'techno-freaks' who choose to browse the web in monochrome on their PDAs or handheld mobile devices - colour tagged elements on your pages are not going to be visible to this group either, and they often have larger disposable incomes than many.
Socio-economic disadvantage, techno-illiteracy or techno-phobia mean that some web users will be browsing the web with old - non-CSS capable - browsers. And it's no good just telling them to 'upgrade your browser' as, for one reason or another, they can't. For this group it is essential to ensure that your web pages are still sensible and coherent when the style sheets are disabled.
Scripting and other programmatic elements all take up bandwidth that many rural Australians and some corporate users do not have available. Is that script really necessary on your page?
What about the PDF file or Flash object - is there another, simpler way of delivering the same functionality or information? Users with telecommunications restrictions or technologically disadvantaged with older equipment or browsers may not be able to access these objects. Those users leading-edge technology such as mobile devices, or even in-car systems, may also be prevented from accessing your information or service if it relies on scripting or applets.
And don't forget the locked-down corporate desktops - many people do their private browsing during a break at work from their employer's PC and will not have access to many of the plugins utilised on the web today. Furthermore, with the increasing prevalence of viruses, many corporate IT departments are restricting the use of VBScript, JAVA, etc on the corporate desktop machine.
Flickering, continual animation and continually scrolling 'headlines' is annoying and distracting for all users. Certain frequencies of flicker (Southwest Missouri State University, 2000) can also cause epileptic fits in vulnerable individuals.
We're all pressed for time - clear and simple language on a web site enables us to scan the pages quickly to find what were after, or to complete our transactions quickly. Furthermore, as a nation of immigrants, we have many Australians for whom English is a second language - clear and simple expression will help them and any non-English speaking overseas users who are attracted to your site.
How often have you seen a colleague's monitor and wondered how he/she manages with the contrast and brightness settings the way they are? Many people do not know that monitors can be adjusted, or don't know how to do it, and contrast can be a real usability issue. Other users have little or no control over the ambient light they work under due to industrial situations or through having or choosing to work outdoors - again contrast is a usability issue, particularly on certain types of screen such as notebooks.
Black and white mobile devices will not show subtle colour contrasts and neither will printed page from a black and white printer - many web pages still get printed for future reading or reference!
Our aging population also has contrast issues - a physiological effect of the aging process on our eyes. As described earlier, baby-boomers are starting to retire, and they will expect to have web access!
Markup for text rather than graphical text will be much more accessible to people with older technology and the rural Australians who browse the web with their graphics off to achieve reasonable page access times. While ALT text is a solution for improving the accessibility of graphics to those can't or don't want to see them, the ALT text often does not fit in the space provided for the graphics, especially with graphical text commonly used for menus and other links.
Style sheets used for layout and presentation allows for repurposing information for mobile devices as a different style sheet can be easily applied.
As the browser-wars wane, we are seeing a convergence towards standards - this means that pages published to formal grammars such as XHTML will display the same for everyone regardless of their browser as well as allowing specialised browsers to interpret the code correctly.
All users will benefit from lists being displayed as true lists. Lists that wrap correctly are easier to scan and read than those that wrap with no indent on the following line. Lists marked up as lists, possibly with a style for presentation purposes, will load and display faster than visual lists marked up in tables with a graphic in the first column and the list text in the second.
Rural Australians, technologically disadvantaged users, and international visitors will all benefit - for anyone with a slow download, multiple embedded tables cause 'apparent' slow downloads as all tables have to be downloaded before they can be displayed.
Multiple embedded tables can also cause navigation problems for those who choose to use a keyboard rather than a mouse such as touch-typists or those with an injury.
'Device independent event handlers' means that a mouse alone (or a keyboard alone) is not necessarily required to activate the scripts or applets used on your page. The technologically advanced with mouse-less mobile devices and touch-typists who loath taking their hands off the keyboard will be obvious beneficiaries. Anyone who has suffered an injury (e.g. RSI, sporting injury, accidents, etc) that temporarily prevents them from using a mouse with ease will also be thankful for increased mouse-less navigation and access options.
While the <blink> element is seldom seen these days for text, the use of blinking graphics is rife. While these are implemented to attract your attention to advertisements or other promotions, they mostly serve to distract you from the main parts of the page and are annoying to have in your peripheral vision.
Anyone who has any difficulty reading your page, such as new Australians or international visitors, may be only part way through when the auto-refresh or redirect occurs - what did they miss?
Auto-redirects are also discourteous to people who may have bookmarked your previous page - if you don't tell them the page or site has moved, their bookmarks will never be updated and eventually they may lose your site altogether if your redirect is only temporary.
New users habitually press the browser 'back' button to return whence they came and do not recognise that a 'greyed out' button means that the function is not available. Often they think that the browser must have 'frozen' and close it down completely, restart and try and get back to where they were.
Both new and casual users can also be perplexed and confused by the plethora of new or 'pop-up' windows that are spawned by some sites and will miss the main purpose of your site in confusion or frustration.
The use of W3C technologies means that users will not have to have the latest plugin as browsers tend to incorporate more W3C standards as they evolve . This will benefit those with older equipment and older browsers as well as those technophobes and technologically illiterate who don't want to or can't load the latest plugin. Rural Australians will also benefit by not having to challenge their bandwidth for large downloads for either the plugin or the applet.
The use of deprecated (obsolete) features of HTML is just bad practice as newer browsers will eventually not be 100% backwardly compatible and someone will miss out on some of your information.
All users will benefits from the 'browsability' of your site if you break the information up into more manageable or natural groups. This is especially true for those users for whom English is not their first language.
Breaking a very long page into smaller pages with natural information or functionality groupings will also benefit those challenged by their telecommunications infrastructure as the individual sections will load more rapidly and they only need to request the sections they specifically require.
How frustrated and annoyed do you get when the "404 - site not found" message pops up after you've clicked on a link? For people browsing on restricted bandwidth - rural Australians and those using mobile devices - this is doubly frustrating as they wait for nothing!
And what about those links that take you to the wrong page? Again, those challenged by their bandwidth are doubly frustrated!
Do your users a favour and make sure that your links are clear and easy to understand so that the expected destination matches the actual destination. Also, check for broken links on a regular basis as part of your QA process and fix or remove them. Finally, carry out random checks to make sure that the targets you think are at the end of a click are actually the right ones.
Especially important for rural Australians and technologically disadvantaged for whom the web is a slow experience as resource discovery is one of their challenges.
The use of simple metadata such as <title> is also important for all of us who regularly bookmark pages for return visits - non-meaningful titles mean that we can't locate the bookmark and thus may not revisit your page.
Many users visit site map pages to gain an overall picture of a web site or to place information in context with respect to your organisation. Site maps or 'tables of content' are also used as a quick means of navigating a site by some people.
Consistent navigation is the big one amongst the usability gurus - why confuse people with variable navigation layouts or styles across what is meant to be a coherent collection of information or services within your site?
New users, new Australians and many others will access your site much more efficiently once they grasp your navigation system - changing it challenges them and may well turn them away.
Even simple navigation such as positioning the labels consistently on your forms helps - and if you're going to be consistent you may as well be correct.
Rural Australians and others browsing with graphics off will definitely benefit from this practice, as the ALT text often doesn't fit in the space allocated for the graphic!
In conventional writing we expand abbreviation and acronyms on first use - the same practice applies on the web, but here we need to implement the practice on every page as we cannot be certain that our visitors will not come directly to a lower-level page rather than through the home page.
All users will benefit from this practice, esp. people not specifically targeted by your pages and new Australians or international visitors who are not familiar with common Australian jargon.
Providing a logical 'tab order' through your page will assist those who choose not to or can't use a mouse. The technologically advanced with mouse-less mobile devices and touch-typists who loath taking their hands off the keyboard will be obvious beneficiaries. Anyone who has suffered an injury (e.g. RSI, sporting injury, accidents, etc) that temporarily prevents them from using a mouse with ease will also be thankful for increased mouse-less navigation and access options.
All users benefit from clearer navigation, obvious navigation areas, and consistent layout.
All users will potentially benefit from a choice of search functions. While many users will not access your 'advanced' search it can be a life-saver for others who understand the nuances of Boolean logic!
Newspapers have learnt over decades that the most important information should go at the start of an article - this is even more important on the web where the users may only see the first paragraph or two on their screen. Furthermore, many studies have shown that people do not 'read' on the web in the conventional sense, but rather scan for information - placing the important information up-front will ensure it is not missed.
All are potential beneficiaries here. Tables of contents are useful summary devices and good for navigation through multi-page websites; not everyone wants to follow a linear path through your information.
The old adage about "a picture telling a thousand words" is as true on the web as it is on paper - but beware of bandwidth. Not all of us are 'word' people and these pictures or diagrams can aid our understanding of the information you are trying to present. Scientific and technical information suffers if graphs and diagrams are omitted!
Those for whom English is not their first language will benefit from complimentary audio as many people can understand the spoken word much better than the written word.
Everyone benefits from improved usability, but some groups benefit more from certain aspects than others. In addition to people with disabilities for whom the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were developed specifically to help, other major groups who will benefit from WCAG 1.0 include older Australians, non-English speaking users, rural Australians and mobile users.
Furthermore, the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative recently released a paper highlighting many of the auxiliary benefits to business applying WCAG 1.0 checkpoints to web page design (Arch and Letourneau, 2002).
This paper has attempted to show the multiple advantages to adopting the WCAG 1.0 as an integral part of your web design guidelines. Hopefully this has dispelled the myth that WCAG 1.0 is just for people with disabilities - adopting the checkpoints as part of your design toolkit will improve your web site for all users.
Usability does reign supreme in the online world.
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