Introduction to Accessibility

Introduction to Accessibility on Udemy

Hello everyone. Today we are going to go over an introduction to web accessibility. Texas Tech has many programs and services that could be enjoyed by anyone on campus or across the world. Anyone anywhere could become a student at Texas Tech or could be helping a student apply to Texas Tech. We also have a lot of information that could be useful to people. You know, just as one example, we currently have a site providing detailed information about the mammals living in Texas. That's information that anyone anywhere could be trying to research and look up. We must work to ensure that everyone can perceive, understand, and use our websites.

There's the idea of the "curb cut effect". When we lower the curb at a crosswalk, we are serving a critical need for those using walkers or wheelchairs. If you have mobility issues, a lowered curb is much easier to navigate. While doing that fulfills this critical need, it also makes the crosswalk easier for everyone to use. The image here depicts a crosswalk with a curb cut and various people that benefit from this bit of accessibility. We have someone in a wheelchair, someone with a cane, but also people with a stroller, or a hand cart, or riding bicycles. My favorite is the kid in the back with a skateboard. Doing this work for accessibility has made the crosswalk easier for everyone to use.

The same idea goes for our websites. Captions and transcripts on videos can help more people understand the content of the video. Many people use captions now either to hear dialogue better, or maybe they're in a situation where they just don't want to disturb those around them. A site that can be used with one hand on the phone helps those that have limited fine motor skills, but also could help anyone that maybe just has one free hand at the moment. Simplifying the text on your site can help everyone understand it better, whether they have cognitive disabilities. are just learning English, or maybe just don't want to spend the effort deciphering your page. Many of these steps can also help computers understand your site's content, which can help your pages show up higher in search results.

There's somewhat of a carrot and stick approach for why we should care about accessibility. On the one hand, making our sites accessible can help everyone learn about, and benefit from, our services. If our mission is to help people, we should try and help as many people as we can. On the stick side of the equation, university policy and laws at the state and federal levels require us to have accessible websites. Feel free to use whichever justification you want, I tend to prefer the one about helping people.

It's on all of us to make sure our sites are accessible. IT Team Web and the Office of Communications and Marketing work to ensure the overall template and styles of TTU websites are as accessible as possible. Our partners across campus are generally in control of everything between the site menu and page footer. We're always happy to help you with any questions you have, and we're always trying to give you the tools and training necessary to build the attractive and accessible websites for your department. We have also employed Silktide as an automated scanning tool, an auditing tool for all TTU websites. When you log into Silktide, you should see your site. The content section can show you things like unrecognized spellings or grammar issues, but also a variety of accessibility items that you can address on your site. Feel free to use this as you are working on and editing your website. Thank you so much for joining me in this introduction to accessibility, and I will talk to you later.