Getting Help and Returning the Favor: How You Can Work with Persons with Disabilities to Make Your Site Accessible

While working with people on the accessibility of their site, I noticed one common concern. It’s very difficult to see for yourself what the problem is.

When people try to examine the accessibility of their site, they usually go “Hey, this seems easy to navigate. I can quickly find the stuff I need. What’s wrong with my site?”

Of course you can always ask a consultant to find out the site’s accessibility problems. But your web site is your baby, and before hiring one, you want to know for yourself what needs to be improved.

In reality, the only true way to be able to know the accessibility problems of something is to see it through the perspective of a person with a disability. Trying to use a site through the perspective of persons with disabilities can indeed help you better understand their needs. But there’s an even better way, and you can do this by...

Getting Feedback from Persons with Disabilities

On your site, you can ask your readers to comment on the accessibility of your site. Here you can specifically address your readers who use assistive technologies or who have a disability. You can tell your non-disabled readers that if they know someone with a disability, they can ask that person to check out your site.

You have to provide a means for people to contact you and send you their feedback. Add your email or a contact form on the same page where you asked your readers to comment on your site.

If you have an accessibility statement page, you can have this request and the contact details on that page.

This will enable your visitors to comment on areas and features in your site that they have difficulty in accessing. Remember to reply to these messages, and take note of the issues your readers have stated.

Joining Online Communities of Persons with Disabilities

There are social network sites where persons with disabilities interact with one another. You may consider joining these communities and asking members to comment on your web site.

Avoid promoting your site too much. You can simply tell other members that you want to improve your site’s accessibility and would love to know what they think.

This may take some of your time. But joining these communities and directly getting feedback provide a win-win situation. You are getting input from persons who have first-hand experiences in living with disabilities, and at the same time, you are working to make your site more accessible based on their recommendations. Another advantage is that you’d be getting comments from persons with different levels of experience in using the Net. This may range from beginner users to persons who have years of experience in Internet surfing.

Conclusion

Once you have enough information, you can start working with your consultant to improve your site’s accessibility. You’ve already seen for yourself the problems of your site, now your consultant can help you find the best solutions for these issues.

Keep in touch with those who have commented on your site, and inform them of the changes you have made.