Where are we now?
It's been seven years since
the W3C released the first version of the web content accessibility
guidelines (WCAG 1.0). Since then, accessibility has slowly but surely
turned up on the radar of web managers in most large organisations.
The
benefits of accessibility are pretty well known too - a quick Google
search for web accessibility benefits returns over 37 million results!
Because of this, more and more large profile websites have offered
better and better accessibility as the years have gone by. There's
still a long way to go but the progress over the past few years is
highly visible and indeed positive.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 refers
to the ‘next generation’ of websites and online applications. Websites
using Web 2.0 technologies have started to spring up all over the
Internet, and are likely to exponentially increase in number over the
next few years. Although the term itself, Web 2.0, has become a bit of
a buzzword, there's no doubt that Web 2.0 is here and is becoming more
and more commonplace.
Two characteristics of Web 2.0 include AJAX
and user generated content. Many websites are beginning to embrace
these two concepts, causing never-before seen accessibility issues...
1. AJAX
AJAX,
or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML isn't actually a technology in
itself. Rather, it's a technique for using a number of existing
technologies to create highly interactive web applications.
AJAX-based
web pages require support for JavaScript, but most assistive
technologies can now support (some types of) JavaScript. The main
accessibility concern isn't therefore the use of JavaScript, but rather
the way in which JavaScript is used to cause on-the-page changes.
The
Amazon diamond search, for example, showcases a great example of using AJAX to create an
interactive and highly useful interface. It basically uses
click-and-drag sliders to allow users to broaden and narrow a wide
range of filtering criteria. The page then automatically updates to
show how many results conform to the users' selected criteria.
The
Amazon application offers fantastic usability for many web users. But
it's totally impossible for screen reader and keyboard-only users to
use, and very difficult for any screen magnifier user to use. The
solution? A separate simplified accessible version, which Amazon have
actually provided (ironically, this separate version hasn't been built
to high levels of accessibility, although it could easily have been).
2. User generated content
Another
concept of Web 2.0 is content generated by users. Blogs and wikis are
becoming more and more commonplace, as stand-alone websites or within
an organisation's website. Currently, many large organisations struggle
to control the accessibility of their content due to the large number
of content editors - how are they going to cope with users contributing
content as well as employees of the organisation?
Websites such
as Blogger, Flickr and YouTube are totally reliant on user generated
content, in the form of blogs, photos and videos respectively. How can
these websites control the accessibility of their content? Content is
created at such a rapid speed that it wouldn't be reasonable (or even
possible) for any of these websites to police that content for
accessibility.
Image- and photo-driven websites, such as Flickr,
could request users insert alternative descriptions, either of their
own or other people's photos. Ensuring this actually happens across the
site though will be difficult to impossible to achieve.
Other
websites, including those of large organisations, are attempting to
build up communities by allowing users to upload images, post comments
and generally interact with each other and the site. Will the website
owners provide a mechanism to ensure this content is produced
accessibly? Can they?
WCAG 2.0
The second version of the
web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) from the W3C is currently
in final working draft and is soon to be released officially.
One
of the main differences between version 2.0 and 1.0 of the guidelines
is that WCAG 2.0 is technology-neutral. This means that the guidelines
themselves are far more vague and open to interpretation than
previously.
Predictions
There are three major factors that
will shape web accessibility in the future: AJAX, user generated
content and WCAG 2.0. The increased prominence of these factors could
lead to some of the following:
* Accessibility will become less
and less guideline-driven - With the advent of new technology (such as
AJAX), and the technology-neutral and vague nature of the new W3C
guidelines (WCAG 2.0), accessibility is becoming less and less
guideline driven. This means that employing accessibility experts is
going to become more and more important for organisations as
interpreting these guidelines correctly will become more and more
difficult.
* Alternative accessible versions will become the norm
- Historically speaking, separate accessible versions were frowned on
for both ethical and business reasons (see Separate text-only version?
No thanks! for more on this (
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/text-only.shtml
)). However, for the first time usability and accessibility are coming
head-to-head with each other and rich interactive interfaces often
can't be made fully accessible. In this instance, a separate version
will have to be provided (but only after all other routes have been
exhausted).
* User generated content is likely to offer poor
accessibility - Content created by users is becoming more and more
commonplace on the web. This kind of content is being created at such a
rapid rate that it's going to be impossible to police it for
accessibility.
* JavaScript, PDF & Flash will no longer be
thought of as 'evil' - In WCAG 1.0, web managers and developers were
basically told that their websites shouldn't rely on any of these three
technologies. WCAG 2.0 on the other hand doesn't stipulate this, and
rightly so as most assistive technologies can now support these
technologies.