Frequently Asked Questions

No. First, the screen-reading software for the visually impaired can inform the user that the links are clickable. Moreover, we should try to keep the alt-text as simple as possible. As in the above example, it is more suitable to provide “next page” as a text description.

It is not recommended. Users will encounter some images but may not know what they are. Some web accessibility experts suggest providing a null alt-text for these purely visually decorative images.

Although alt-text should be kept concise, it is necessary to provide enough information for the images. It is insufficient to mark an image as “Photo”. You may refer to the following example for a sufficient alt-text:

Our office building
Group photo of the award ceremony
Photo of the Chairman and the CEO

Example of alt-text for diagram:

This bar chart shows the number of crimes committed between 2008 and 2010. Details as follows:
year: 2008, total: 12000
year: 2009, total: 9000
year: 2010, total: 11000

• Pay attention to the background, color, font of web pages, etc.
• Mono-color should be used for the background of web pages, image is not recommended.
• Adequate color contrast is more important than what color is being used. You can use image editing software to adjust the screenshot of web pages into grayscale, and simply verifying the color contrast.
• In terms of font selection, it is not necessary to use extra-large fonts. Instead, you should pay attention to define the relative font size in HTML and CSS and avoid using the fixed font size.
• Avoid using capital letters, italic, or underline style for the whole paragraph.

It depends on the individual’s vision. Some people can read the web pages in a normal way. Those with less remaining eyesight may use screen magnification software while people with a narrow field of vision may need to read text with a smaller font. Some people require higher color contrast, and some others may require special color schemes such as the yellow font on a black background.

Screen magnification software users or users with a narrow field of vision can only read a small portion of the screen at a time, so it is more convenient for them if these links are placed on the upper-left of the page.

No. With the development of web technology, a website with lots of graphics, rich content and interaction can be barrier-free for everyone. Developers are recommended to adopt a universal design, so users can share the same version of the website no matter which method or tool they use.

It is not necessary to construct a text-only website in general. It is to prevent two major shortcomings that extra resources are required to maintain two separate versions, and the content between the two versions may not be synchronized.

The text-only version should only be used when exhaustion of methods still fails to make the main site accessible. The link to the text-only version should be placed at the beginning of the page if adopted so that users can switch more easily.

As these technologies are very practical and powerful, they are not opposed to be used in general. In order to enable everyone to use the internet, manufacturers are gradually improving the accessibility of these technologies, and related support to the assistive tools for clients.

Instead, you should think about the reason of using these technologies. We suggest to provide an alternative solution for the web pages which use these technologies in order to enable everyone to use your website.

We recommend that the web developers should consult with the disabled communities, in order to further understand their special needs. It is to ensure that they can access the websites easily and eliminate the barriers of reading the web pages. We also encourage the developers to use some commonly used screen reading and screen magnification software to test the websites on their own, such as NVDA, JAWS, ZoomText, etc.

Web accessibility testing tools for reference:

• WAVE
  WAVE is a free accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM. It will provide a visual representation of accessibility issues within the page.
• Total Validator
  Total Validator is a suite of tools combining XHTML validation, accessibility testing, spell checking, and broken links checker.
• TAW Online
  TAW is an online analysis tool for websites. It aims at analyzing the level of web accessibility and development and provides useful feedback.
• Colorblind Web Page Filter
  This tool can simulate three different types of color blindness to view the web pages.
• Fangs
  Fangs is a browser extension for Firefox and acts as a Screen Reader Emulator, which can convert the web page content into the screen reading mode so that the web developer will understand the actual effect of the web page under the screen reading layout.