Published on July 15, 2010 by Donna Seale
As I’m one of those kind of gals who likes to practice what she preaches, when I started thinking about redesigning my blog one of the issues that was top-of-mind was ensuring that my site was as accessible to as many readers as possible. In other words, I wanted to be sure that just because you happen to have a disability or just because your abilities may be changing (due to aging, for example), you would not be limited, in any way, from understanding, interacting with or navigating the content on my site.
And so, for the past number of months I have embarked upon a quest to make my blog compliant with the Web Accessibility Initiative. I sought out the tremendous guidance of Glenda Watson-Hyatt, a passionate advocate for web accessibility and a gold mine of knowledge and experience on that very topic. In fact, Glenda has written an e-book on enhancing the accessibility of blogs (it’s free to download!) and has recently launched her Blog Accessibility Mastermind course in an effort to make the blogosphere accessible to everyone. As Glenda has interestingly brought to my attention:
“Do you know that people with disabilities account for $175 billion in discretionary spending power in the United States alone? These individuals, a significantly under-tapped market, regularly face barriers preventing them from participating fully online…..
Consider the following:
- Much of the web is graphical. Individuals who are blind use text-to-speech screen readers, a technology requiring descriptive text for all and images. Are your graphics accompanied by alternative text?
- Online video and audio is increasingly popular. Individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired cannot hear audio content.
- Flashing ads are distracting and annoying to all. These ads — that onscreen flickering — are not merely irritating to individuals with epilepsy, they can trigger seizures.
These are only three of the many barriers to online activities for many people with disabilities.”
Armed with Glenda’s insights, I asked Doug Jasinski and his Skunkworks Creative Group team, the cracker-jack designers of my blog if they were up to the task of helping me meet my goal and they responded enthusiastically. And so….drum roll please….I am happy to announce that my blog is now on target to meet the latest in web accessibility guidelines.
You know what the interesting part is? It wasn’t at all difficult to incorporate the tweaks that needed to be made. And it wasn’t an overly expensive proposition either. Remember, after all, I’m just one gal operating a small business from Manitoba. If I can do it, well, then certainly others can. So, I’m going to stand on my teeny podium right now and put out a challenge to all of my readers to have a look at their own sites and blogs and see if they just can’t make these very same changes. Your own readers, employees and customers will thank you for it.
Even though I find all of this change exciting, I’m also keenly aware from what Glenda has taught me that making websites and blogs accessible is an ongoing process. Web technologies are always changing and “accessibility best practices” are continually being developed and discovered. So, while I’m proud that, along with some very key people, I’ve raised the standard of my blog’s design to its current point, I know that it will need to evolve along with the overall growth and development of the web.
And, with that in mind, I would like to invite any feedback you might have regarding any accessibility issues you may be having with my new design. Working together we can make this site a part of what I hope to see become an all-inclusive web.
[Image by Svilen Milev]
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Published on August 24, 2009 by Donna Seale
I'm thankful I was able to get out with my family yesterday and enjoy our one whole day of summer yesterday! (We almost didn't recognize the blue sky and sun when it showed up in the morning). Today, we got hit by a thunderstorm which had me wondering if we were going to leave the house at all! Guess I should be thankful we have a roof over our heads in order to continually duck this lousy weather.
Anyway, amidst the weather wranglings, there has been a lot of interesting discussion on Twitter during the past week covering everything from enhancing workplace diversity, to how workplace sexual harassment is morphing with the new technologies and even to how those new technologies are impacting employer behaviors. You'll also see a link to a great video that shows how a person who is blind navigates the internet on his computer. Happy reading/viewing!
Alberta companies enhancing diversity of their workforces esp in male dominated fields http://chilp.it/?1dec50
Thoughts? Are women penalized in the wkpl if also a mom? http://chilp.it/?06be8e
The 'new' sexual harassment is less in-your-face than in the past but still a big problem. http://chilp.it/?a0fb02
RT @jonhyman: New blog post: Papering a personnel file as evidence of retaliation? http://bit.ly/Ijhgs
Just the beginning…RT @RossRunkel: 7 percent of hiring managers look at applicants' Twitter posts http://tinyurl.com/kkk9jr (@djillpugh)
RT @GlendaWH: Have you ever wondered how a blind person uses a computer? Here's a great video http://bit.ly/uuFC4
Donna M. Seale B.A., LL. B.
Human Rights Lawyer
and Educator
