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Universal Access

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Cultural organizations have embraced the web. The ability to reach traditional audiences as well as new audiences in a cost effect manner has lead to a rapid proliferation of museum web sites. However, although many of these sites are visually striking, in most cases, the beauty is only skin deep.

There is art in the design of a web site. A site that is accessible to all people has a richer meaning and a deeper beauty because it is able to reach more people in more ways.

What is Universal Access? Access to all audiences, regardless of physical disabilities or technological limitations.

Why should museums embrace Universal Access? To reach as many audiences as possible. Because it's the right thing to do. Because it's the law. (see information on the Federal Government's Section 508 requirements)

Cultural organizations are generally dedicated to making their information available to all audiences, including those with disabilities. However, most museum web sites are not easy to navigate or use by the hearing- and visually-disabled. This presentation will cover not only the basics of good web site design, but will include a demonstration of technologies that allow the museum professional to create web sites that can really be used by all.

Visual Impairments

People with visual impairments range from the totally blind to people who have some difficulty reading small print. Visually-impaired users can best be accommodated by supplying alternate text for all images and graphics, ensuring that navigational icons are large and easy to distinguish, and page layouts are flexible. Some visually-impaired users may need to set the default font size in their browser to a larger value. If a page is laid out using tables with fixed sizes, information can be "lost" beyond the borders of the tables or can "disappear" behind illustrations. Select this text, to see an example.

Some people are color blind. For example, 1 out of every 10 males has some trouble seeing color. Green text on a red background can not be distinguished by some people.

Cascading style sheets allow the web designer to control the layout of many different pages using a single "style sheet." Although the current implementation of style sheets is poor and interpretation by different browsers is inconsistent, they promise to make access by visually-impaired users easier. In the future, visually-impaired users may be able to "turn off" style sheets so that the content can be accessed unhindered by complex graphic design.

The use of embedded text is an especially large problem. Embedded text is text that has been incorporated into an image. Unless alternate text is provided, the information in the text is lost to visually-impaired users, to people using text or auditory browsers, and to people using low bandwidth connections to the Internet that have graphics "turned off". Just as important, the text is not available to software programs that index content for web search engines. This results in fewer people "finding" the web site when performing a search. The following examples are provided to illustrate the difficulties visually-impaired users encounter when navigating museum web sites. These sites were sampled in March of 2000.

Hearing Impairments

Hearing-impaired people may be completely deaf, or may have partial loss of hearing. For example, some hearing-impaired users can not distinguish between sounds in the "foreground" and sounds in the "distance". These people may have trouble distinguishing the sounds coming from a computer kiosk and the sounds created by museum visitors walking past. Hearing-impaired individuals are best accommodated by providing graphical or textual alternatives to sound tracks. Mainstream visitors will benefit as well. Text tracks in on-line video can be searched, providing all users with a means to access specific information without having to listen to the entire feature.

Diminished Mobility

Some people suffer from decreased mobility. This can range from stiffness of fingers due to arthritis to complete paralysis below the neck. Many people with disabilities use adaptive technology, software or hardware that is designed to provide easier access to electronic resources. Designing web sites for such a wide range of people is difficult, however, if web site designers adhere to the basic principles of Accessible Design then the developers of adaptive technologies will create tools to assist this population.

Cognitive Disabilities

People with cognitive disabilities may have trouble reading. To better serve this population, web designers should avoid lengthy, text only pages. Navigation of pages should be clear and simple.

Ensuring that a Site is Accessible

General Accessible Design Principles

Checklist for Accessibility

Resources

All materials © Jim Angus, 2000. I would like to thank Kristin Johnson for providing me with a copy of her paper, Developing An Accessible Museum Web Site, December 20, 1999, Thesis Document, Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies. It has been invaluable in helping me prepare this web site. Select this text to view the MW2001 outline.