Web Accessibility
Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, defined the web as a space where anyone can easily share information without any barriers, and said that web content should be created so that anyone can access it without any barriers. This means that all users are guaranteed to access and use the web regardless of their physical and environmental conditions. Here, physical conditions mean not only general users, but also people with disabilities, elderly people, etc., and environmental conditions mean various devices, OS, web browsers, etc.
Accessibility means the degree of universal access that allows more people to use it, and it means that all people can easily use information and communication devices or services, not just people with disabilities.
Disability Discrimination Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act)
- The Act on Prohibition of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities and Remedy for Infringement of Their Rights, which came into effect on April 11, 2008, is a law that prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in their daily lives such as education, employment, etc. by law, and provides effective remedies for persons with disabilities who have been unfairly discriminated against due to their disability.
- In case of discrimination, the law imposes damages, burden of proof, and penalties (imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than 30 million won), which is more specific and coercive than the existing similar laws.
- As of April 11, 2013, all corporations are subject to the law and reasonable accommodation is mandatory.
Mobile Accessibility
It means to ensure that people with disabilities, elderly people, etc. can use mobile devices and applications equally with non-disabled people.
Web accessibility can naturally provide mobile web accessibility if it is well guaranteed. Mobile App accessibility compliance/recommendations include PC Web accessibility content, and only the issues related to the specificity of mobile devices are summarized below.
Accessibility problems on mobile devices
- Mobile devices have small screens (resolution)
- Mobile networking environment is slower than PC
- Mobile is an early market with various operating systems
Computer use of visually impaired people
Blind
There are three ways for visually impaired people to use computers. The first way is to enlarge the screen and use it. The second way is to listen to the input or calculated content and execute the computer. The third way is to use a braille terminal to check and execute the contents of the computer with a braille display.
Among the three methods, using the computer with sound is the most cost-effective and has nothing to do with the presence or absence of residual vision or the ability to decipher braille, so it is the most widely used method among visually impaired people's computer use.
Visually impaired people use the link list dialog box first when they want to find the information they want on the Internet document. In the link list dialog box, you can easily move to the linked document because it only shows the current document's link list.
To easily access the edit window, use the tab key to move to each link or form. But there is no way to find the text. Therefore, to find the text in the document, use the text movement. Therefore, using heading movement is good. If you structure the document with headings from 1 to 6, visually impaired people can easily understand the document structure by moving between headings. In addition, by using the heading movement, you can move directly to the desired location and easily find the information you want.
Visually impaired people cannot access images such as photos or pictures. If you do not provide Alt Text for the image, it will output the image file name as voice. However, if you provide Alt Text, you can easily understand the content by voice output.
Low vision
Among the visually impaired, there are people who cannot see the front at all, but there are many people who cannot see the object properly even if they have residual vision. For example
- When you see an object, the center is not visible (macular hole, macular degeneration, optic nerve disease, optic neuritis)
- The central part of the object is visible, but the peripheral part is not visible (glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, stroke)
- When the light passes through the eye, turbidity occurs in the organ (corneal turbidity, corneal degeneration, cataract, vitreous hemorrhage, vitreous turbidity)
- Non-specific visual impairment (diabetic retinopathy, combined retinal disease, premature retinal disease, optic nerve atrophy, combined ocular trauma and inflammation) etc. People with low vision use various optical aids in their daily lives.
People with low vision have difficulty with the screen color (color) and size of the computer. People with low vision use the mouse differently from the visually impaired who cannot see the front at all. The difficulty with screen color is solved by using high contrast. The problem of screen size is solved by using magnifier or a special screen enlargement program. Even if you use a screen enlargement program, the screen content is hidden and difficult to use. Therefore, it is much more convenient for people with low vision to provide a function to enlarge the font size without enlarging the screen to the right in the web document itself.