Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
45 lines (24 loc) · 3.99 KB

HTML accessibility.md

File metadata and controls

45 lines (24 loc) · 3.99 KB
Raw

HTML Accessibility

HTML accessibility is important to all developers because it is the standard used in HTML5. Here is a break down of what accessbility is and why it is important.

What is Accessibility?

Accessibility contains two factors:

  1. How users with disabilities access electronic information.

  2. How web developers enable web pages to function with assistive devices used by individuals with disabilities. Adobe

Assistive technology is a piece of technology used by people with hearing and mobility disabilities. People with hearing impairments require captions to access video and audio. Additionally, users with mobility impairments are unable to use a traditional keyboard, therefore assistive software is used to help them navigate the web using voice commands. These technologies are compatible with accessibile code, because good developers prioritize accessiblity. Learning Responsive Web Design: A Beginner's Guide

Why is Accessibility Important?

Accessibility is important for four main reasons:

  1. Accessibility levels the playing field. It represents an important step toward autonomy for people with disabilities. A web developer should strive to make his website accessible to as many users as possible. Businesses are perceived as socially responsible for implementing such a policy.

  2. Accessibility offers benefits for all. When following a universal design the amount of time spent on maintenance and development is reduced. Additionally, accessible web pages are easier to read, easier to navigate, and faster to load for both the customer and developer.

  3. In many institutions and countries such as, the United States and Canada, legal mandates exist for accessibility. As a result, a new breed of developers are learning to implement accessibility standards, because of such policies. In the United States, Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act sets standards for web pages designed or maintained by the federal government. Additionally universities such as, the University of Wisconsin at Madison implemented an accessibility policy requiring all pages published by the university to assent to the WCAG checkpoints. Adobe

  4. Accessibility can determine potential revenue for businesses that implement such policies. When developers decide to neglect accessibility, they reduce the amount of potential users on their website. This results in giving an advantage to their competitors' accessible site. When developers make accessibility a priority, they connect with a new customer market which can result in increased revenue.

Semantic HTML

Semantic HTML is the use of HTML markup to reinforce the meaning of the information in the web page. Rather than merely define its presentation or look. Semantic HTML

Prior to HTML5, many developers used HTML tags to make their webpage run and were not concerned with using the appropriate tags. This became problematic for three reasons:

  1. Computers had trouble processing faulty code, because tags were misused or were simply recycled.

  2. Developers had trouble deciphering each others code. Different developers had different ways of writing a web pages. There were not semantics in place; this made collaborating difficult.

  3. People with disabilities could not read a webpage, because screen readers could not understand the semantics. This resulted in the web page being displayed differently on screen readers.

HTML5 was a major breakthrough, because it established semantic HTML as the norm across the board.

Conclusion

Accessibility should be a main priority when writing code. Without accessibility good code cannot be written, because the code is not structured in an organized format. Accessibility became standardized with HTML5 which laid the groundwork for semantic HTML. Today, all HTML code is written using this model.