Web+2.0+Access+Barrier-+Present+and+Future

In this short article written by Trenton Moss, the founder of Webcredible (user experience and research design, Webcredible.com), he discusses how new and exciting Web 2.0 technologies that people are embracing are going to cause unforeseen accessibility barriers. Over the last seven years since accessibility guidelines were composed websites have improved their accessibility to disabled people. As Web 2.0 has become more popular, websites are griping on to two main concepts of Web 2.0 and unforseen accessibility issues have been the result.

One of these concepts is AJAX, which, in short, increases interactivity of the web, but has many access barriers. AJAX’s use of JavaScript is causing accessibility issues. More specifically, a screen reader is not able to be used on technologies that rely on AJAX, and using a screen magnifier causes much difficulty. Moss goes on to say that there is a solution to this problem, but has not been a priority for the websites because of the positive effects they are getting from AJAX technology.

The other Web 2.0 concept that has created unforeseen access barries is user-generated content, such as blogs and wikis. Because there are so many editors on these sites and huge amounts of information going into it, it is very difficult to control the accessibility of the content of these websites. Can you imagine a company having to make every piece of new information given to their user-generated websites accessible to all users- would the time be worth it to them given they are already getting so much information from those who can access the sites?

The change that needs to happen starts with the technology itself- create a user-generated atmosphere that anything that is posted or contributed will automatically be accessible to all. Moss suggests that there be two versions of content- but wouldn’t one get a different experience from a complex website with many different links and search contents than a text-only website? Web creators could stop relying so heavily on applications that are proven to cause access barriers. But with so much information coming to the web from so many different people, can someone really maintain accessibility for all websites for all people? It’s a daunting task!

====Web 2.0 applications are very useful tools that everyone should have access to. People with disabilities face challenges with these applications for various reasons. Regardless, they are not able to take full advantage of great developments from the Internet. To help break this barrier, the official public body for web standards, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is working with ARIA. ARIA stands for Accessible Rich Internet Applications, and it should help alleviate the problems that AJAX programming causes with interaction and inaccessibility on the web with Web 2.0 technologies. AIRA is still being implemented and is being developed further.====

====In conjunction with ARIA tools, best design practices have begun to emerge that relate to Web 2.0 that should help disadvantaged users have successful interaction with Web 2.0 tools. The first set of standards, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), is directly set by W3C. Examples of these standards include providing alternate audio and visual content, a proper use of style sheets, easily transforming tables, proper integration of new technologies, and clear navigation schemes. In addition to WCAG, the Social Media Accessibility Recommendations was developed by the NYS Forum IT Accessibility Work Group. In these recommendations, they provide goals and methods to achieve the goals for vision impairments, hearing impairments, mobility impairments, and cognitive impairments. An example of a recommendation for vision impairments with a goal of being perceivable would be to avoid the use of color to convey meaning. An example of a recommendation for cognitive impairments with a goal of being operable would be to use a constant navigation scheme.====

====With the use of WCAG, the Social Media Accessibility Recommendations, and the continuing development of ARIA technologies, the Web 2.0 access barrier that people with disabilities may face should decrease until it no longer exists.====

Sources:
====[] (This site also contains the Social Media Accessibility Recommendations, see Appendix: Social Media Accessibility Recommendations.)====