What is Web Accessibility?<\/h2>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/files\/2022\/03\/braile-computer-550x367.jpg\")
“A computer with a refreshable braille display” by Elizabeth<\/a> under the Unsplash License<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBefore I highlight the significance of Web Accessibility, it is important to understand what it really is. Web Accessibility<\/strong> simply refers to the process of making digital tools (websites, technologies, etc…) in a manner that will allow individuals with disabilities<\/a> to use them. Unfortunately, the word ‘disability’ has been popularly reduced to describe the commonly known conditions like blindness or deafness. However, disability in this context involves any condition that affect access to the Web including the following:<\/p>\n\n- Auditory<\/li>\n
- Physical<\/li>\n
- Cognitive<\/li>\n
- Visual<\/li>\n
- Neurological<\/li>\n
- Speech<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Although the target audience is people with disability, building products with Web Accessibility in mind can lead to benefits for even individuals without disabilities. For instance, I find reading physical books inconvenient. Perhaps this is because I am lazy ?, but I am able to leverage the popular text-to-speech feature to read novels I enjoy. Mind you, this text-to-speech feature is a direct variant of the initial print-to-speech reading machine<\/a> that was developed for individuals with visual impairments.<\/p>\nIs Digital Accessibility that Important?<\/h2>\n
Of course! Even though I am an individual that enjoys debating any meaningful topic, the idea of Digital Accessibility is one those topics that I now consider – not<\/strong> up for debate. This is because the mere act of debating it brings to question whether we as a society consider individuals with disabilities an equal member of the population.<\/p>\nFor the sake of awareness however, Digital Accessibility helps to:<\/p>\n
\n- Promote a culture of inclusion, as the whole idea of web accessibility involves the inclusion of those with disabilities. By making it a standard; we promote a great culture of inclusion.<\/li>\n
- Increase market reach to a sadly ignored but large demographic. The world bank reported<\/a> about 1 billion disabled individuals which roughly equivalent to 15% of the population.<\/li>\n
- Enhance your brand, since a product that publicly announces its consideration for individuals with disabilities has a more positive social appeal; which can improve business.<\/li>\n
- Drive innovation, especially in regard to digital assets and technologies. Elise Roy’s TED Talk<\/a> is a clear demonstration of how building with accessibility in mind can drive innovation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/files\/2022\/03\/keyboard-550x367.jpg\")
“A hand wearing a virtual keyboard device, that connects to the computer via Bluetooth and allows the user to type in a variety of locations” by Elizabeth<\/a> under the Unsplash License<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI look forward to a world where everyone is aware of the importance of web accessibility and eagerly foster a society where everyone feels included. I have a positive outlook on these prospects and I hope YOU all help to further this mindset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Learning Web Accessibility As a software engineer, I have never really considered making my products accessible. It is sad to think it never came to mind to make software and websites a truly inclusive platform for all individuals. Even worse, I build software for clients, many of which are big<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5261,"featured_media":45,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","tag-accessibility","tag-design","tag-disability","tag-engineering","tag-programming","tag-universal-design","tag-user-interface","tag-web-standards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Before I highlight the significance of Web Accessibility, it is important to understand what it really is. Web Accessibility<\/strong> simply refers to the process of making digital tools (websites, technologies, etc…) in a manner that will allow individuals with disabilities<\/a> to use them. Unfortunately, the word ‘disability’ has been popularly reduced to describe the commonly known conditions like blindness or deafness. However, disability in this context involves any condition that affect access to the Web including the following:<\/p>\n Although the target audience is people with disability, building products with Web Accessibility in mind can lead to benefits for even individuals without disabilities. For instance, I find reading physical books inconvenient. Perhaps this is because I am lazy ?, but I am able to leverage the popular text-to-speech feature to read novels I enjoy. Mind you, this text-to-speech feature is a direct variant of the initial print-to-speech reading machine<\/a> that was developed for individuals with visual impairments.<\/p>\n Of course! Even though I am an individual that enjoys debating any meaningful topic, the idea of Digital Accessibility is one those topics that I now consider – not<\/strong> up for debate. This is because the mere act of debating it brings to question whether we as a society consider individuals with disabilities an equal member of the population.<\/p>\n For the sake of awareness however, Digital Accessibility helps to:<\/p>\n I look forward to a world where everyone is aware of the importance of web accessibility and eagerly foster a society where everyone feels included. I have a positive outlook on these prospects and I hope YOU all help to further this mindset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learning Web Accessibility As a software engineer, I have never really considered making my products accessible. It is sad to think it never came to mind to make software and websites a truly inclusive platform for all individuals. Even worse, I build software for clients, many of which are big<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5261,"featured_media":45,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","tag-accessibility","tag-design","tag-disability","tag-engineering","tag-programming","tag-universal-design","tag-user-interface","tag-web-standards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/olatunem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Is Digital Accessibility that Important?<\/h2>\n
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