Professional SharePoint® 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007

9.1. What Is an Accessible Web Site?

The primary motivation behind having an accessible site is to ensure that users with a disability can consume a Web site without being put at a disadvantage. Disabilities in the context of Web sites fall into two categories: visual and interactive. Visual disabilities, of course, refer to those users who are blind and cannot see the screen. These users typically use either screen readers that verbally read aloud the content of a Web page for the user to hear or Braille displays.

Refer to the screen reader page on Wikipedia for more information on screen readers: www.andrewconnell.com/go/220.

Another visual impairment affects those who have problems with contrast, so Web pages that utilize different shades of colors that are not very distinct from one another can cause issues. Users may also be prone to photosensitive epilepsy caused by pages that contain flickering or flashing content in the range of three flashes per second (Hertz) or when screen elements change from dark to light very quickly.

The other types of impairment that accessibility covers involve interactive issues. For instance, users may not be able to use a mouse. In this case, users rely on the keyboard for all interaction, including navigating menus and entering values in forms. Other users may not have access to a keyboard and have to speak commands.

Note that creating accessible sites so disabled or impaired users can have the same or near-identical experience as those ...