大象传媒

Web 2.0 effecting accessibility?

• By Paul Crichton
• 13 Jun 07, 07:12 PM

A report published on 4th June 2007 by the (CRG) found that as high-tech companies adopt Web 2.0 features, accessibility levels declined by 38% on the websites covered in their survey.

Not surprisingly, the report found that high-tech companies such as , and are leading the way in adopting Web 2.0 features, such as blogs, forums, interactive ways of displaying product information and live chat tools. However, without planning these can have consequences on the accessibility of a site.

For instance, on the website, users can switch between different sections of product information without having to move to another page. However, if not implemented properly, screenreaders can鈥檛 detect that content has changed, thus causing major accessibility problems e.g leaving a screenreader user to miss out on important system requirements information or the product description.

The irony is that Web 2.0 features are usually introduced to make websites more user-friendly. This is not proving to be the case for all user groups. The website scores very well on the CRG report for usability, yet when I visited it with my screen-reader, it was virtually impossible to navigate and use because the website is built using Flash and inaccessible Web 2.0 features such as those used to compare products. It was scarcely any better than looking at a blank page.

A similar problem is found on the website. Sun allows its customers to rate and review its products. Yet it is not possible to read the reviews if you are trying to do so with a screenreader, or using a text browser like Lynx because the functionality depends on scripts not compatible with these tools.

The CRG believe that the increase in high-tech company innovation and accessibility levels falling is not coincidental. They claim that, 鈥渨hen new web development occurs there is limited attention paid to making those changes accessible.鈥� This is because many corporate web development teams are still not giving accessibility issues the importance that they deserve.

When you also consider that there is an increase in video content, which in many cases excludes the sight and hearing impaired, and the use of CAPTCHA鈥檚, (images of jumbles words and numbers) it is becoming harder to comment on blogs, sign up for email accounts, purchase goods or get involved with online communities when it should be getting easier.

The main revelation to rise out from this report is that previously accessible websites, are less so now. This is a worrying trend. It would be a disaster if wholesale adoption of Web 2.0 features made the internet even more difficult to use when it could be an opportunity to create the opposite affect.

It isn鈥檛 a completely bleak outlook, however. Some Web 2.0 features can be made accessible. For instance, on the site, the same feature used by McAfee, to hop around the content on a page, is applied to allow users to toggle between a list of most read and most emailed news stories The difference is that everyone can use this feature on the 大象传媒 site because it was developed with accessibility in mind - this has been overlooked on McAfee site.

In the end, developers must pay due diligence to how they implement new technologies rather than implementing them for the sake of keeping up with an emerging Web 2.0 world, and make sure that what they do is of equal benefit, and enjoyment to everyone.

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