Universal Design for Web Applications

Audience Characteristics

So when we talk about accessibility, we’re really just talking about people who are blind, right?

Well, no. While people who can’t see well or at all are at a distinct disadvantage using visual resources such as the Web, far more people encounter unintended design barriers. With the rise in popularity of web video, tens of millions of people who do not hear well or at all are missing out. Mouse-driven sites prevent keyboard-only users from operating web applications. Depending on the person or the situation in which she finds herself, or the device she has chosen to use, someone may be facing one of these issues or all of them. This is not black and white; people’s capabilities are on a continuum and change throughout their lifetimes, perhaps even within a single day.

How can change happen so quickly? You start your day checking email on your laptop in the kitchen. As you walk to the bus stop, you get an update on your mobile device, and you craft an answer as the bus rattles its way through the city. By the time you reach your office, you have five more emails. In the first two hours of your day, you have seamlessly shifted between different operating systems, browsers, screen sizes, and resolutions. Your kinesthetic surroundings change constantly: family distractions in the kitchen, noises from the bus and fellow commuters, vibrations and bumps from the bus. Lighting changed: soft lighting in the kitchen, sunlight on the bus, and bright overhead fluorescents ...