If you produce anything online, you’re probably ignorant about disabled people.

Sound harsh? Well, it is. And odds are it’s true.

As new technologies emerge and Internet professionals have more cool toys to play with, we make assumptions about how people are surfing the web. It’s our job and our lifestyle to try and stay on the bleeding edge. And although everyone wants to build a hotwired, we reluctantly accept that most people don’t have the latest software or access to broadband. Compromises usually take place when we choose between supporting old browsers and delivering buzzword-laden web sites. But upon what information are we making our decisions? Published statistics are difficult to believe, so we rely on log files to see who’s coming to visit.

While enjoying our morning coffee delivered from a nice and slow intravenous drip, we make what seems like an informed conclusion: the 0.06 per cent of visitors surfing with an archaic browser like Lynx should upgrade or get offline.

Getting online isn't easy if you're disabled, because most web developers don't even know you can access the web. Michaelangelo wouldn't have designed an inaccessable web site.

And that’s where most of us are guilty of creating a World Wide Wall that stops disabled people as effectively as a kick in the bauds. Technological elitism has a human cost that transcends the non-support issue. By making most web sites physically inaccessible to disabled people, we are demoting them to second-class netizens who are excluded from participating in normal online social activities.

The irony is deafening.

In a cyberworld where everyone is supposed to be equal and anonymous, handicaps should be irrelevant. And they are … until we ruin the party and insist on only a high-tech version of a site. When alternate text descriptions for images and a text-based navigation page are so easy to create and we don’t create them, we come across as prejudiced against disabled people.

This only becomes an issue when we realize our designs are inaccessible. Most developers don’t consider the needs of blind internet users because the demographic is something we know nothing about. With a show of hands, how many of you have even heard of a braille display or text-to-speech web browsers? Look around; you’re not alone.

TeleSensory's PowerBraille 80 instantly transforms screen information into 8-dot refreshable braille

A braille display is slightly larger than an average keyboard. By touching their fingers to it, visually impaired users read the text that would normally appear on a computer monitor. It converts ASCII screen characters to braille by raising pins mechanically, forming words as they appear on screen. Displays such as TeleSensory’s PowerBraille convert less than half a horizontal line at a time and refresh automatically.

A screen reader works differently. Using an alternative browser (like PWWebspeak or J-BLiss) in conjunction with text-to-speech software, web pages are converted into audible, synthesized speech.

In both cases, images disappear. All the graphics are replaced by their ALTernate descriptions, if they exist, and an indication of whether or not they have a hyperlink.

It’s enough to humble even the greatest HTML grinders.

But don't give up hope. Although Content will always be King, design still matters. University of Toronto accessibility researcher Dena Shumila says, "it is good design and correct use of html that makes a page accessible. It does matter what the pages look like, because like it or not we are part of a visually based world and advertising, promotion ... are all visual in nature in terms of drawing attention. The important thing is that you can still have a cool looking site that is accessible."

To understand what inaccessibility means, either download PWWebSpeak or close your eyes and have someone read a website to you. Remember that all text is read horizontally (in most cases ACROSS frames) and the only description of a java applet or an image is the ALT tag. No ALT tags? Too bad.

There are fundamental problems with the majority of web design today. Fortunately, adding accessibility isn’t difficult.

Before we get into the thick of things, remember that these problems aren’t due to ignorance on the part of today’s designers. The Internet was brought into existence as a post-apocalypse communications system the United States could use to rebuild itself if the cold war got really hot and went nuclear. ARPA scientists and US military engineers never considered usability issues, cross-browser compatibility or how a screen reader would view a page.

Communicators have to learn how to design with everyone in mind. A web site can have high-definition, cutting edge technology, but it should degrade gracefully so visually impaired people can enjoy the content too.

These are issues that matter today! Now that the Internet has become a ubiquitous medium for communications, communicators are the ones who must make sure their message is being delivered to as large an audience as possible.

So how do you make your web site accessible for the visually impaired?

Two easy things you can do include using ALTernative descriptions and keeping an up-to-date text-only version of your main navigation page. They’re easy to implement and increase accessibility dramatically. Use ALTernate text descriptions for all images, applets, objects and client-side image maps.

<IMG SRC=bob.gif width=234 height=120 ALT="My friend Bob and his dog Sam play catch with an AOL disk">

For more information on making your site accessible, read the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines. They were developed by a team of accessibility researchers from around the world, including members of The University of Toronto’s Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC).

Kevin Nguyen, Access Systems Developer at the ATRC, says the WAI's first priority was coming up with a set of standards (as outlined in the guidelines). They then approached mainstream software developers and asked them to build accessibility functions into their commercial web editing software. "Sofquad’s HotMetal Pro was the first one to come on board," he says. "Now it looks like other mainstream programs will also implement forms of accessibility prompting for people building web sites. We’re very pleased with this."

The WAI guidelines include a recommendation for widespread implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS allows designers and users to have better control over web page formatting, style and design. By using Logical Styles (<strong> for bold and <em> for emphasis/italics) instead of Physical Styles (<bold> and <I>), designers can specify how they want their pages to look and disabled people can turn the CSS off to view a text-only version. Instant accessibility will be achieved and everybody online will be able to configure their browsers independently. Also worth noting is that low-vision users who surf with special browsers (i.e. configured to display 10-point fonts as 46-point fonts) will be able to define their own settings.

CSS will satiate designers by delivering the much-promised utopian vision: a tool that allows a complicated, high-definition site to degrade gracefully in any older browser that might be viewing it.

The future looks brighter for visually impaired surfers and changes can already be seen on the horizon.

The much-hyped Opera browser has low vision and high contrast displays, while Microsoft IE 4+ already incorporates disability options into its preferences menu.

Daniel Puskaric, a Technical Researcher at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, says that several companies are making specialized browsers for disabled people. "There are lots of screen readers out there, but JAWS and Winvision97 are the best. Recently, they’ve all been getting better, but none are at the point where they can overcome inaccessible design."

Making the Internet accessible depends on us. Still push edges, but remember the audience. Even if we're narrowcasting, there might be one person with Lynx who's curious about what we have to say. Ensure access by using common sense and testing sites in browsers that aren't Netscape or IE. Also flip your mouse over and see if you can navigate your site with just your keyboard.

A month ago, I thought blind people online was preposterous. Now, not only do I know better, but exn.ca has a secondary text-based navigation system that allows visually impaired people to access most of our content. The gracious responses we've already received made the 3 hours' work very rewarding. When was the last time you helped a blind person see?

To check your knowledge of disability issues online, take the Public Service Commission of Canada’s Web Page Accessibility Self-Evaluation Test.