Do I Have to Learn Programming to Make My Site Accessible?

“Web accessibility? Sounds like a technical thing! I think I have to learn programming for it, right?”

Well, the answer to this relies on a few factors. Here we will take a Look at each one to help you figure out the answer for yourself.

What is Programming?

Before we continue, let us first have a simple definition of programming. In the context of the Internet, programming consists of techniques and procedures for creating web pages, their structure, and their content.

Having a Web Development Team

If you have your own web development team, they will do all the programming tasks for you. This includes the procedures related to accessibility. So in this case, you do not have to learn programming, unless you want to directly work with your team on your site’s accessibility.

Although you don’t have to learn programming, you at least have to know the basics of web site structure and content. In addition, you need to have an idea on how persons with disabilities use the Internet. These things would help you understand why you need to make changes to your site.

You also have to make sure your team clearly understands web accessibility. This may involve setting up a web accessibility training for your developers.

Working on a Small Site

On the other hand, let us say you choose to have a small web site. Here, you would work on all aspects of the site, including content management and web development. Since a part of web accessibility involves using the correct tags and attributes, you need to learn web programming to make your site accessible.

But this wouldn’t be a problem, because if you are planning or are currently working on your own site, you may already know how to make web pages anyway. Similar to the previous scenario, you would understand accessibility better once you learn how disabled persons browse the Net.

Using a Content Management System

More and more people are now using content management systems like Drupal and Wordpress. A content management system (CMS) is a collection of tools that let you create, organize, modify, and remove information in your web pages.

Using a CMS requires little or no background on web programming. This means that if you use a CMS, you can make your site accessible without having too much programming skills. You nonetheless need to know how to make your content accessible through your chosen CMS.

Helping in Making a Site Accessible

You can still help make a site accessible even if you are not the one creating it and you have no programming background. Simple tasks such as organizing information and ensuring good structure can contribute to a site’s accessibility. You can also help in the accessibility of word documents, PDF files, and spreadsheets which developers upload to the site.

Conclusion

The answer to whether or not you need programming skills for your site’s accessibility depends on your situation. If you have a web development team, you don’t have to learn the technical side of accessibility. If you choose to work on your own, you must learn programming to make your site accessible.

In any event, you need to understand how certain people access the Internet. Through this, you would appreciate the real purpose of making your site accessible.