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This week BBC online reported on a survey criticising major websites for not doing enough to make their virtual presence accessible enough for the disabled. However I was puzzled by the BBC’s accompanying photograph of a man in a wheel chair using a computer, this puzzled me because being in a wheel chair doesn’t actually stop you browsing websites however they’ve been constructed. It’s the visually impaired who are affected by this matter, not people without use of their legs. The article went on ‘The World Health Organisation estimates that there are around 600 million disabled people worldwide, which represents about 10% of the world’s population’… OK yes they do, however, the WHO site also says that a much lower 2% of the world’s population are visually impaired. Further research shows that half of this 2% (1% of the world’s population) have cataracts and live in developing countries.

Now call me cynical but the majority of the population suffering from cataracts in developing countries don’t have access to the Internet (or probably computers) - with food and water pretty high on their list of daily needs. Shopping at Tesco.com probably doesn’t even enter the realms of possibility. This means that for 99% of the web’s audience, access using audio screen readers isn’t an issue. Less of a story BBC? Yes indeed, ‘Web Accessibility Problems Don’t Affect 99% of the Population’ isn’t going to make people sit up and take action in politically correct Britain is it?

The Disability Discrimination Act does have major implications for website designers and coders; just as ‘bricks n mortar’ stores should fit wheel chair ramps, websites need to be accessible to all. However, I myself do get quite worked up at the attention visually impaired people are given in the web design press. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re blind or visually impaired it must be truly awful on a day to day basis, but aren’t we getting a little carried away by putting so much time and energy into meeting your needs, even writing off content that would be perfectly acceptable to 99% of website visitors?

I’ve worked with accessibility experts who have refused to allow websites to feature some fantastic animated Flash content, and refused the use of ethical search engine optimisation techniques which would enable a website to obtain many thousands of extra visitors. It’s all well and good having an accessible website for the blind, but if even those that can see can’t find a website, aren’t we overlooking the fundamentals of market economics? If anything is at fault here surely it’s the platform of the Internet itself, it should have been designed to be audible instead… but wait then we’d have to think about the hearing impaired wouldn’t we?

Technorati Tags: web accessiblity, disability discrimination, visual impairment, web usability

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