Joomla! Accessibility: A quick guide to creating accessible websites with Joomla!

There are several definitions of accessibility. The International Standards Organization (ISO) defines accessibility as:

If we apply this definition to the Web it refers to the design interfaces and applications that can be used by the widest possible audience; ensuring that there are no users who are left out when trying to use them. That's great, however, note that it doesn't specifically mention blind users or other people with disabilities at all, yet it talks about usability.

The W3C in its "Introduction to Web Accessibility", defines it as:

You can read further at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php

So some definitions specifically talk about people with disabilities and others don't. While I believe that access for everyone is a great ideal, I also think that the details are important, and I support the definition that specifically mentions people with disabilities. According to me the first definition, talks about universality, which is great, but I think that web accessibility is a specific part of that universal umbrella that mostly relates to people with disabilities. As you read further you will realize that people with disabilities have specific needs; and in order to meet these needs, you as an author or developer, need some solid techniques and understanding, so that they can use your website easily. This is where I hope this book will be useful.

There are some substantial benefits of accessible web design and development:

So by considering the diverse needs of users, for example, people with vision impairment who need good color contrast and resizable text, the designers should change their styles to accommodate these user's needs. A good design principle is that "form should follow function". This is a simple, but effective mantra. Unfortunately, it is often completely ignored.

"Accessibility is not anti-design". Many of your cool graphic designer friends might believe this. They are laboring under a misconception. Accessibility actually forces them to think about the details and motivation behind what they design, forcing them to not vainly follow trends, or use their design skills only to express themselves.

Tell them if they wish to express themselves they should join a punk band, otherwise they should think about what they are doing and ensure that lazy or shallow fashionable design styles do not dictate how they work.

If you have an awkward client who refuses to see reason when it comes to good design, firstly take a deep breath, and try explaining the reasons for your design decisions. This means with careful use of logic and good reasoning you can usually beat any fuzzy ideas your client has about their perception of what constitutes a good design.

You might have to ensure that your website is accessible under certain laws. This however depends on which part of the world you are in, the site's purpose, and several other factors.

We will now look in detail at the current state of legislation in the Ireland, after that we will look at the EU, US, and UK. You can visit the link from the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) site that deals with global legislation, if you do not belong to any of these areas.

Much of the following section on Irish legislation comes from the NCBI CFIT website thanks to its author, my colleague, Mark Magennis.

Many countries have a legislation that can be applied to all kinds of ICT accessibility including the Web. This usually comes in one of two forms:

The first form (e.g. the U.S. Section 508) usually states specifically that the services delivered through ICT systems must be accessible to people with disabilities. However, this type of legislation usually applies only to the public bodies.

The second form (e.g. the UK Disability Discrimination Act) does not usually mention ICT systems, so it is up to the courts to decide on a case-by-case basis whether it covers things like websites. However, it usually applies to private organizations as well as public bodies.

You may be wondering why I have included these rather detailed examples of legislations, standards and policies.

I wish to illustrate that, depending on where in the world you are, how tricky it can be to find clear-cut, unambiguous legislation that clearly states your responsibility under the law. As far as I am concerned, equal access to information and accessible technologies should be a right for everybody and, I really like the US model. However, as I hope that you can now see, in many parts of the world it just isn't so and it is often a struggle to make accessible services a reality in a legislative context.

Which is the best? It's hard to say. As I mentioned, I like the rights-based approach as I think this got the attention of anyone who wanted to do business with the US government. The EU has taken a different approach.

The US model may engender a 'do the bare minimum' to check all the boxes and declare yourself compliant; this is not an ideal mindset. So only time will tell how effective the EU approach will be. There are many capable people involved in various EU projects who are flying the flag for accessibility and the adoption of best practices and standards.

There is certainly a shift around the world towards public sector and business having to build accessible websites and other ICT services as a matter of course. There have been some high profile court cases, which have brought these accessibility issues into the public consciousness and no doubt there will be more, but even this has not shocked or scared business into a great rush towards making their websites and applications accessible.

In this chapter we saw some definitions of accessibility and the concepts of usability and universality. We will examine these ideas in greater detail in the next chapter.

We explored the need to understand your users, accommodate diversity, and deal with change. We saw the benefits of accessibility and examined some legislations from around the world.

Although legislation is certainly an effective stick to drive business to create accessible services, some may be of the opinion of paying the fine and ignore users with disabilities, as they are only a small part of the market. If you work for a government department or other public sector agency, bear in mind that your clients are ordinary citizens who have the same right to access information and services as everyone else. The technology to make this a reality already exists!