Making The Web Usable By Everyone (Including people with disabilities, people with slow net connections, people with broken mice, etc.) Gregory C. Lowney, Microsoft Corporation, Human Factors and the World Wide Web Confernce, October 30, 1996

Click on your choice now: [Link] [Link] Which would you choose?

Many users cannot see graphic images. They may be using text-mode browsers, or have turned off graphics to speed up performance on slow connections, and rely on speech or Braille output. Provide descriptions for all images using the ALT attribute.

Click on your state to get more information [Image] Click where?

Tables are used for Frames are used for positioning text and dividing the window graphics in rows into regions that are and columns. scrolled independently. What is going on here?

Screen reader utilities use synthesized speech or a Braille display to read a page for individuals who are blind. They based solely on the text on the screen, oblivious to the fact that one line of text spans multiple columns. Provide an alternate page that does not rely on frames or tables.

Select a driver (WARNING: drivers shown in red are dangerously unstable and should not be used) Install Version 6 Install Version 7 Install Version 8 HELP!

Some users won’t be able to see the colors you choose. They may be color blind, or relying on voice output rather than seeing the screen directly, or using a text mode web browser. Don’t convey important information by color alone.

as designers we demand... ~2~ the ability to control the presentation of a Web document... Was this author very confused?

You can achieve spectacular effects by creative use of style sheets. However, these are lost on users who rely on voice output, use browsers that don’t support style sheets, or apply their own style sheets to make pages more legible. Make sure your web pages are usable when style sheets are turned off.

Choose a link: Click here This Jump Select one what?

Some tools present a drop-down menu of all the links on a page, or recognize when the user speaks the name of a link. If several links have the same name, or the names are ambiguous or too generic, such lists become unusable. Give all links names that are brief and can be understood out of context.

This is an example of text that is extremely difficult for most people to read. That results from the combination of type face, the size, style, and the combination of foreground and background colors. If you could control the display attributes you could make it easier to read on your own computer, but when the author uses fixed font attributes it can leave the user feeling frustrated, angry, and unenlightened. Please read carefully

Text that seems legible to one person may be unreadable to another. Many people with low vision need to adjust their browser options to show text as bright text on a black background, or use large or sans-serif fonts. If you hard- code text attributes, it can be as hard for them as the previous view was for you. Provide an alternative to hard-coded font attributes; use style sheets when possible.