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According to the Irish National Disability Authority (NDA), electronic services such as Web sites, ATMs and software packages often are not designed with users who have a disability in mind.
"The Internet, for example, is largely inaccessible to people with visual impairments, and often to people with learning difficulties," said Christine Whyte, NDA's head of policy and public affairs. "If computers came standardised with screen reading software, which reads out what is on the screen and is already available as a separate package, the Internet could become automatically accessible."
The NDA also criticised public access terminals for being too high for wheelchair users, not having voice activation and being overly complicated in design. ATMs were also cited as having the same failings, while mobile phones were judged to be unusable by people who have difficulty seeing the small buttons.
Whyte told ElectricNews.Net that unless action was taken the electronic and IT sectors would become well known for having accessibility problems.
In order to rectify the situation, the NDA has developed a set of guidelines that it hopes will give service providers direction on best practices for designing user-friendly electronically delivered services.
The guidelines, which were launched on Friday, cover Web sites, public access terminals, telecoms and application software. For instance, under the Web site section, the guidelines advise that priorities in site design should include providing a text equivalent for every non-text element, ensuring that information does not rely on colour perception, and the avoidance of content that will cause the screen to flicker.
According to Angela Kerins, chairperson of the NDA, the guidelines were also necessary because of the proliferation of other such guidelines and standards. "The problem is that they are distributed across many different locations and are often difficult to understand and use," said Kerins in a statement. The NDA said that its guidelines have pulled all this information together and should act as a "one-stop-shop."
Kerins also called for the guidelines to be used in all e-government initiatives given that such projects have to ensure that the services developed are fully accessible to the maximum number of people. "Just like the physical modifications required to make public buildings accessible, these electronically delivered public services must also be accessible," she commented.
The NDA's IT Accessibility Guidelines were developed by Frontend Usability Engineering under the direction of an advisory group.
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