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WikiCED manual: Difference between revisions
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Using technology, this is enabled by the fact that most information is stored in one way or another in text format. Email is text, Web pages are generally text. The low level format of Web pages is HTML, which accommodates accessible features. Suddenly, individuals with mobility, cognitive or vision disabilities (estimated to be 700 million people around the world, or one in seven Canadians) are on a more equal footing with everyone else - they're tremendously enabled. | Using technology, this is enabled by the fact that most information is stored in one way or another in text format. Email is text, Web pages are generally text. The low level format of Web pages is HTML, which accommodates accessible features. Suddenly, individuals with mobility, cognitive or vision disabilities (estimated to be 700 million people around the world, or one in seven Canadians) are on a more equal footing with everyone else - they're tremendously enabled. | ||
Consider a well implemented Web page. Behind the scenes, presentation is separated from content. Headings are used to indicate sections. A person with vision disabilities, whether it's very common colour blindness, contrast problems, or acute focus problems, can use a variety of techniques to access this information. They can change the font size in their browser, they can replace colours. They can use a screen reader, which reads the document using text to speech, treats headings as a table of contents, and allows the individual to easily scan the page rather than forcing them to "read" it top to bottom. This carries over to everyone - someone with a large screen or small screen (like the increasingly popular mobile browsers) can reasonably access well designed content. The work that goes into producing this page usually leads to easier information re-use and presentation flexibility. | Consider a well implemented Web page. Behind the scenes, presentation is separated from content. Headings are used to indicate sections. A person with vision disabilities, whether it's very common colour blindness, contrast problems, or acute focus problems, can use a variety of techniques to access this information. They can change the font size in their browser, they can replace colours. They can use a screen reader, which reads the document using text to speech, treats headings as a table of contents, and allows the individual to easily scan the page rather than forcing them to "read" it top to bottom. | ||
This carries over to everyone - someone with a large screen or small screen (like the increasingly popular mobile browsers) can reasonably access well designed content. The work that goes into producing this page usually leads to easier information re-use and presentation flexibility. | |||
This is not true for poorly designed content. Individuals have few ways to alter content. Users of screen readers have to wait through long passages of repetitive "content" that describes useless elements - the presentation, rather than the content. Mobile browsers and older computers may not be able to access the content at all. | This is not true for poorly designed content. Individuals have few ways to alter content. Users of screen readers have to wait through long passages of repetitive "content" that describes useless elements - the presentation, rather than the content. Mobile browsers and older computers may not be able to access the content at all. | ||