Why much of the internet is closed off to blind people
A few weeks ago, I chatted to James Jeffrey for a BBC article on Why much of the internet is closed off to blind people. In particular, I spoke to how easy it can be to make a website accessible, and why it should be part of our everyday practice as designers and developers.
“It’s not hard to do, it should just be part of best practice, not an additional line item, just like making sure a website loads quickly is,” says Laura Kalbag, a website designer and author of Accessibility for Everyone.
“It basically just involves HTML coding, which even a blogger can do. If it is a huge website, it might take some time, but the work itself is not complicated.”
She adds it is a myth that making a website accessible makes it ugly, there is no correlation - you can still have snazzy images and graphics.
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“We treat disabled people as if they are different but that isn’t the case, as digital accessibility affects all of us,” says Ms Kalbag. “If nothing else, you should see it in a selfish way, as one day you will probably need this type of accessibility.”