Accessibility Guidelines have been followed during the design of the Online Blissword Dictionary. Simple changes during the design of the site in conformance with the W3C Guidelines means that the website is designed to provide as many accessibility features as possible. This not only opens the information to disabled people, but makes the site in general, easier to use.
The website has been created using valid extensible HyperText Mark-up Language (XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to improve the accessibility of the document and navigation. This conforms to World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.
Some of the accessibility features considered during the design and implementation of this website are:
When a website is viewed, it will look different dependent upon the size of screen used and current resolution settings. It is very erroneous as a designer, to base the website page designs on personal system settings. Due to the vast amount of internet devices available on the market today coupled with more user preference settings the traditional "What you see is what you get" no longer exists. To combat this problem, it was necessary to design the Online Blissword Dictionary system on a resolution independent design. In essence, this means that no fixed pixels were used to define widths. Instead, the layout design was specified as percentages of available space which means that regardless of the device used to access the website, the website is displayed in a scalable format.
To enhance accessibility, it is necessary to have a high contrast between foreground and background colours. This will not only make the pages more readable for users who have visual impairments but make the pages easier to read for users with good eyesight. It is more difficult to read information on screen than on paper and if there are busy backgrounds or low contrast, the information will be missed. The main body of text is on a plain white background ensuring a high contrast with the colours of text used.
It is anticipated that users with visual disabilities will at some point access the website. It was necessary to design using relative font sizes instead of absolute font sizes. This is performed by setting the font size attribute to a percentage of the default font size instead of setting it to a specific number of points or pixels. This enables the font to become larger or smaller dependent upon the command given by the user and the page will replicate the user's preferences.
It is necessary to provide an alternative viewing method for users who cannot display images. Due to the website making use of a bitmap implementation, users who have their graphics turned off, or those who are blind would not be able to see the images if ALT attributes were not implemented. By implementing ALT attributes, users who have their graphics turned off can view the text equivalent of the image, whilst blind users are made aware of the graphic by hearing the alternative text.
It is necessary to help the user recognise where in the website they are. By displaying a navigation path at the top of each webpage it is possible for the user to see the link from where they have been to where they currently are. By making each link active, it is possible for the user to return to any page in the link at any time. Different users have varying levels of cognitive abilities, thus providing a navigation path acts as an aid memoir meaning that users do not have to remember, they can see the information in front of them at all times.
For many reasons users will fail to spell words correctly whilst typing them into the search box. This may be because the language they are using is not their mother tongue, they may suffer from dyslexia or perhaps be in a hurry and not take care whilst typing. A system implemented that only finds perfectly spelled words will create frustration with users. This frustration is alleviated by displaying the closest matches to the word which the user has typed.
It is necessary to write website information in clear and plain language. It is often very difficult to read on screen and a complex writing style is not only unnecessary, but may confuse users meaning they will not return to the website. Simple sentence structures are used to make the information contained on the website accessible for all users, regardless of their cognitive abilities.
To move from link to link, the Tab key can be used to navigate around the site without the need for a mouse. For additional ease of use, a logical tab index system has been included in the website.
Helpful error messages are displayed where appropriate. The messages will convey what task needs to be performed to overcome the error.
It is anticipated that not all users will have access to a mouse or other pointing device at some point during interaction with the website. It was therefore, necessary to include in the design the provision of Access Keys. Access keys enable users to navigate through the website using a keyboard only method. Whilst providing greater accessibility to the site for users who are unable to use a pointing device due to a disability, the introduction will facilitate users who normally use a pointing device but for some reason do not have access to it, i.e. their mouse has broken. Access keys have been provided for the main links. For a full set of Access Keys available, please see the Access Keys link.
