Accessibility Important? Nah!

Here is an article that anyone ‘in the know’ would just read and say “Duh!” but a lot of us just don’t get it yet.

At work I program our online ticket store for tours and attractions so anything to do with the web is interesting to me.  I have been listening to a lot of podcasts since getting my first Mac computer system, which I fell absolutely in love with.

One of the podcasters I have been listening to is Allison Sheridan of the Nosillacast Podcast – hosted at Podfeet.com -  a Technology Geek Podcast with an Ever so slight Macintosh bias.

Allison often mentions people who use their computers a little differently than the majority, usually because of the inability to see.  I have to admit, between talking about, and with, her un-sighted friends and talking about Screensteps and Honda Bob, Allison has a way to burrow into your subconscious and make positive changes to those around her… well, positive only if you NEED Screensteps or own a Honda or Acura in the LA or Orange County area, otherwise you’ll buy something you don’t need or want to move to California… but the rest is positive!

I have recently gained access through work to Lynda.com which is a great training tool for anything computer-related.  If you are looking to learn something then consider them for your needs.  I’m not affiliated with them in any way but I am truly impressed with the vast knowledge they have on-hand for anyone to tap into.

So, what’s my point?  Good question!  I do tend to ramble a bit.  I ran across a 3-year-old course on Accessibility and thought it would be a great thing to look into, especially considering my job.  I started watching the videos and they talk about Mac Voice Over.  I turned it on and went to the site I work on daily.  I have never been so bored in my life!  We have about 30 cities in which we sell tickets and on every page the reader would go down each city before getting to the good stuff in the main page!

Not only that, as if that’s not enough, but it said “Right-pointing-black-pointer” before every one of them because that’s the name of the little triangle bullet we put before each city name! Oh my gosh!  I would go out of my mind if I had to sit through all that!  I’m just glad we are upgrading the entire store over the next few months so I can help nudge us into the latter 20th century. (Yes, I know it’s now the 21st century but we are WAY behind!)  I feel like I personally owe an apology to every blind person who has visited the site.  I’m sure they never came back.

The really bad thing is I went to some other popular sites and a lot of them stink as badly or worse than my work site does.  Big sites that should do better for their visitors/listeners/viewers/etc.  Even CNN.Com has about 30+ links you have to skip over to get to any of the content on the actual page and then you have to go through related topics and other “fluff”.  If I had to rely on Voice Over to get the news I’d be screaming by now “Just give me the story!”

Here I am writing, infrequently as it is, in a blog about new perspectives and boy did I ever get my eyes opened… literally!  I’d like to encourage everyone who works on web pages to take the effort to learn more about web site accessibility.  There is so much to learn – not just screen readers.  I just learned that many people with dyslexia use narrow page width to help them read better.  Who da thunk it?

Now, how do I get everyone at work on board?!  I feel a devious plot developing!