IN AN EVOLVING WEB LANDSCAPE, THE BOUNDARIES OF A11Y
ARE CONSTANTLY ADVANCING. MARK BILLEN ASKS THE EXPERTS:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ACCESSIBLE NOW AND NEXT?
AUTHOR
MARK BILLEN
Former editor of both
Web Designer and Web
Developer magazines,
Billen is currently a
freelance web and print
writer across multiple
topics including online,
technology, business
apps and more.
t: @Mark_BillenA
ccording to Technopedia
(technopedia.com), accessibilit y –
or ‘a11y’ as it’s also known – is
“a measure of how accessible
a computer system is to all
people, including those with
disabilities or impairments”. As you can
see, it’s not about one group or the other
but better access for all.
And this has never been truer within a
webisphere that’s not only natively more
sophisticated but that spans exciting
new territories and points of access. “The
definition of a11y has definitely changed,”
says Zara Gemmell, accessibility directorat HeX Productions. “Whilst we used to
focus on just people with visual, hearing,
motor and cognitive impairments, we’re
now focusing on usability for society as a
whole. As a definition, a disabled person
is not someone who has a disability
but rather a group of people that are
disabled by the environment that is being
presented to them.”
Ultimately understanding that
accessibility is a continuum upon
which all users sit helps designers and
developers provide the broadest access to
their products. “Recognise that humanity
exists along a broad spectrum,” says IanThe new frontier of accessibility