For technical communicators, the concept of accessibility can be summarized as enabling people with disabilities to access electronic information. Sadly, a common misconception is that accessibility is about spending a large amount of resources to appeal to a small subset of users. Among the more cynical of us, the term may even induce rolling eyes and disgruntled mutterings about political correctness.
Everyone at some point will face what the principles of accessibility would consider a disability.
Everyone at some point will face what the principles of accessibility would consider a disability. You don’t necessarily have to be permanently visually, physically, or hearing impaired. What if your mouse arm is stuck in a cast for the next few months? Temporarily saddled with a dial-up connection? Ever tried to read a poorly transferred document on the screen of your PDA? Maybe you’re an incurable advocate for a web browser for which people typically don’t code. All of these situations represent disabilities that can be overcome with a more accessible product.
Not convinced? How about your company’s bottom line? If you’re an IT company that wants to do business with any federal agency of the U.S. government, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act states that your product had better be accessible, including the documentation.
In Canada things aren’t quite that strict yet, but the federal government already enforces accessibility in their “Common Look and Feel” standards for all GoC web material. In Ontario, the recently passed Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act commits the province to setting a host of new legally binding accessibility standards for both public and private organizations. One way or another, accessibility is a concept that’s gained a lot of ground in recent years and only seems poised for greater progress.
Accessibility is a concept that’s gained a lot of ground in recent years and only seems poised for greater progress.
There are many simple principles that contribute enormously to a more accessible product that can make your documentation easier to use even for those few super-humans among us who have achieved perfection. Here are just a few places you can read more:
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative: Their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have been used as the basis for most accessibility legislation — http://www.w3.org/WAI
- Section 508 Web site: The official U.S. Web site for section 508 standards and enquiries — http://www.section508.gov/
- Common Look and Feel for the Internet: Canada’s official guidelines for accessible Web content — http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf-nsi/index_e.asp
- GNOME Documentation Style Guide: Some great tips for writing accessible documentation — http://developer.gnome.org/documents/style-guide/accessibility.html
