Do the Blind Deserve More Effort on the Web?

dratcw writes "An article was posted this week to ComputerWorld, detailing the frustrations faced by blind people struggling to use the Web. The piece shows how little progress has been made and the inadequacy of solutions such as Microsoft's Narrator screen reader. While the article generated many positive comments, one reader said the disabled should 'get a grip' and maintained they 'have no more right to demand that others provide for their needs than I, as a diabetic, have a right to demand that sugar no longer be used.' Should Web sites and software makers do more, or does the reality of today's economics dictate that the blind/disabled will continue to struggle and learn to live with it?"

Comments

Re:Alt Tags for Images

[elecmahm]

I disagree -- and if you've ever used a screen reader you'd understand how nearsighted (no pun intended) that comment is.

1. = Alt tags, yes. But also:
2. = Long desc on images that are content-heavy or pertinent to the content
3. = Using a proper hierarchy of header tags (H1/2/3/4/5)
4. = Using lists (UL, OL, DL, etc.) properly
5. = Placing the content BEFORE the navigation, or at least providing an internally linked "skipnav" link (use CSS to hide it)
6. = using title properties on links
7. = Creating non-flash versions of key items
8. = Using Javascript as an additional convenience, but not a key element. (I *still* see sites that use window.href onclick events instead of just using an "A" tag.)

That's just the beginning. Not using alt tags doesn't "break the web" for screen readers, it's just less helpful. But not using semantically accurate tags can make it nearly impossible to read or navigate a page. The screen reader JAWS (what I was trained on) can jump through a page by header tags, so having a proper hierarchy is crucial to them being able to quickly locate the information they need.

If your site breaks with all plugins, javascript, and CSS turned off, then blind people will effectively NOT be able to use it.