Accessibility Is Not Only for the Technically Knowledgeable

It is true that in order to make technology accessible, you may need to perform
complex procedures and modifications to the technology. But this doesn’t mean that
you can’t do anything if you don’t know how to perform the required standard
procedures and tasks. Even if you do not have much technical knowledge, you can
still help a lot in making technology accessible.

You can start with the everyday tasks you normally work on. When creating documents
in MS Word or other word processing software, you can examine the structure of the
information and figure out how to make it much more organized. When you are creating
a web page using a specific web authoring tool, see to it that you use headings
properly and graphics are correctly labeled. If you are working on presentations,
you can make sure that audio samples are used only if they are necessary.

It is also a good idea to spend some time in trying to place yourself in the shoes
of persons with disabilities. You can ask yourself questions such as the following:
What would you need if you could not see an image in a web page? What would help you
understand a video or audio file if you could not hear it? What would be the
simplest and most understandable way to communicate a message displayed in an
application?

In addition, it may be useful to learn about the software and devices used by
persons with disabilities in accessing technologies such as computers and the
Internet. This would give you a first-hand experience in understanding how this
group manages to access a particular technology.

Finally, you can read about general accessibility methods. There are tons of
accessibility resources on the Internet and most of them are free. Don’t be
discouraged by the length of certain accessibility-related documents. Once you’ve
learned the first major points, it will be very easy to follow the next ones as they
are usually related to one another.

At Even Grounds we would like to offer assistance to those who are committed to make their environment accessible and would like to learn more about it. Our newsletter offers easy to implement tips to make electronic information accessible without any technical knowledge.