Book Image

Joomla! Accessibility

Book Image

Joomla! Accessibility

Overview of this book

Understanding how to create accessible websites is an essential skill these days . You may even be obliged by law to create websites that are usable by the widest audience, including people with a range of disabilities.This book looks at what accessibility is and the various reasons, such as legislative or legal, as to why you really need to understand accessibility and then create websites that can be used by everyone. This book therefore examines the diverse range of user requirements that need to be considered for humans to successfully use web technologies.If you have no experience of being around, or working with, people with disabilities then it can be very difficult to successfully design user interfaces that cover their needs. This book will show you how you can both understand some of the various needs of people with disabilities and the technology they use to interact with computers and the Web.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)
Joomla! Accessibility
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface

Assistive Technology (AT)


There are many kinds of assistive technologies and there are also many definitions. I like this one from the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society:

"A term used to describe all of the tools, products, and devices, from the simplest to the most complex, that can make a particular function easier or possible to perform."

Note that it doesn't mention disability at all, and I think this is also important. We don't really think of our spectacles or our TV remote controls as assistive technology, but they are. I like the idea of technology that can be used by many different people regardless of their abilities; technology that is not just used by people with disabilities but by the ordinary user who doesn't think of themselves as being disabled, but is just using a technology because it works really well. This takes AT out of the 'disability only' sector and makes it more inclusive, or at least our perception about it.

Note

For a humourous and fun introduction to AT check...