web accessibility and dyslexia
TRANSCRIPT
Presentazione a cura di Alessio Colangelo
Corso di Teoria e Tecnologia della ComunicazioneCognizione e Linguaggio Prof.ssa Maria Teresa Guasti
A.A. 2015-2016
Web accessibility and dyslexiaJacob E. McCarthy, Sarah J. Swierenga What we know about dyslexia and web accessibility: a research review Universal Access in the Information Society, 2010 - Springer
Article by:
V.F de Santana, R. de Oliveira, L.D.L Almeida, M.C.C Baranauskas Web accessibility and people with dyslexia: a survey on techniques and guidelines Web Accessibility, 2012
PURPOSE
• Review existing literature about web dyslexia to determine what knowledge exists about dyslexic group
• Find design guidelines about dyslexic and non – dyslexic users
• Increase accessiblity for dyslexic and other minor difficulties encountered by all Internet Users
DEFINITION OF DYSLEXYA
The term Dyslexia come from Greek words «dis» disorder and «lexia» language it is usually defined as a brain-type of learning disability that specifically impairs a person’s ability to read despite having a normal intelligence.The neurological approach defines dyslexia as a disorder in which a child does not develop the normal reading and writing skills despite having access to regular schooling.Dyslexia is also sometimes described as a cognitive disability and is believed to have serious impact on self perception and self esteem.
The occurrence of Dyslexia according to International Dyslexia Association (IDA) has been reported from 15% to 20% of the population worldwide with more frequence in men representing from 60 to 80%.
WEB AND DYSLEXIA
The main problems for dyslexic users as found by UK Digital Rights Commission in 2004 were : • Confusing page layout• Unclear navigation• Poor color selections• Graphics and text too small• Complicated language
Results of further studies show that dyslexic desire to customize fonts, type-size,and color of a screen text. SeeWord software allows user to gain control of these features.Also prioritize information, avoiding moving texts, simplify navigation and search are good recommendations for a usable web page.
WEB GUIDELINES
As dislexic user experiences different issues reading a web page and the vast majority of researches focus on others cognitive or physical disabilities rather than dyslexia and due to this reason it is important that researchers put great effort in combining studies about dyslexia and web accessibility.
The Main web accessibility guidelines for web-designers include making texts selectable, using sans serif fonts or dyslexic specific typeface (OpenDyslexic), prefer the visual content over the text, avoid complicated «legalese» documents, write in plain and concise language.
By following web accessibility both dislexic and normal user can benefit from it.
GUIDELINES MAPPING
The table shows the relationship among groups of guidelines and relevance level according to stakeholders’ roles.
Navigation High High Medium
Colors Medium High Medium
Text presentation Medium High Medium
Writing Low Low High
Layout Medium High Low
Images and charts Medium High Medium
End user customization High Medium Low
Markup High Low Medium
Videos and audios Medium High Medium
Guidelines group
Relevance
Developer Designer Content Producer
GUIDELINES MAPPING
• Navigation menu must be visible all the time and menu’s background should avoid transparency.
• Using breadcrumbs facilitate navigation as the back and forward buttons. • Optimize your site with internal search.• Avoid section headers in italic. Use boxes with borders to catch attention.• Do not use links with a simple «click me» indicate content instead.• Using ordered list is better than unordered or bullet list.
• Pure white as background is the worst solution for a dyslexic. The best alternative is #FFFFE5.
NAVIGATION
COLOR
GUIDELINES MAPPING
• Use text size above 12, sans serif must be preferred such as Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Comic sans, Trebuchet.
• Do not align text.• Blinking or moving text increase difficulty in reading.• Remember spacing paragraph.
• Be concise and write texts with simple sentences. Use active voice instead of passive voice.
• Use graphics when appropriate• Write considering that the reader may use «screen readers».• Use <abbr> tag to explain abbreviation and acronyms.
TEXT PRESENTATION
WRITING
GUIDELINES MAPPING
• Use simple and fluid design. Columns must be from 60 to 70 characters long.• Avoid horizontal scrolling.
• People with dyslexia prefer images over words. Use pictures, charts and icons.• Always include the «alternative text» for images in html.
• Make your website entirely customizable by the user providing features that enable changing color, text size, fonts etc. or creating custom CSS.
LAYOUT
IMAGES AND CHARTS
END USER CUSTOMIZATION
• Do not play videos or audios automatically when the page loads.• Use both media to provide a message to your users.
• If using RIA’s try to make your website and your content always accessible for dyslexic users.
GUIDELINES MAPPING
VIDEOS AND AUDIO
RICH INTERNET APPLICATION
CONCLUSION
Dyslexia and web accessibility has often been investigated separately. Providing guidelines should help the stakeholders to project website with regard for all different kind of disabilities by removing all barriers.
Considering the group of stakeholders developers should focus on markup and end user customization features, designers should improve layout, color scheme and UI while content producers should pay special attention to the writing style.
This set of guidelines integrate other sets that promote User Centred Design principles, making the WWW a better accessible place for everyone.
Thank You For Listening!