Today, I attended the presentation, “Making Your Information Available to People with ID by Building Accessible Websites” by Lynne Tamor, Ph.D., of The ArcLink Incorporated.
Dr. Tamor’s work mirrors that of my own and of others who specialize in cognitive Web accessibility. The principles she described and/or demonstrated included:
- Create uncluttered pages with consistent layout
- Use Plain language/People First language/Low readability score
- Make the site accessible to screen readers, operating system narrators, and text-to-speech software
- Use graphics, audio, and video to support text
- Avoid jargon, including Internet-related jargon
- Use large print and simple fonts
- Try to limit scrolling
- Make sure pages will print as seen on the screen
- Use a consistent and straightforward navigation system
- Include a “how to use this site” section
- Make the homepage informative for people who come to the site via search engines
Taylor, Lynne. “Features of a Cognitively Accessible Website” handout distributed at “Making Your Information Available to People with ID by Building Accessible Websites.” Annual Conference of The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Providence, Rhode Island. 9 June 2010.
Notes: The presentation was also credited to Nancy Ward, Oklahoma Disability Law Center. No endorsement of The ArcLink Incorporated is intended or implied.