Today’s blog post will be focused around accessibility online. Accessibility in this case includes video/photo descriptions in metadata, headings, and reflecting on accessibility practices.
Photo!
Featuring: Goober The Cat (centre) Photo Credits: myself
Reflection
For this weeks reflection I will be answering the following prompts:
- Are there any digital accessibility practices that you often see being missed? Are there any that you know YOU often miss?
- Are there any digital accessibility practises that surprised you? Why?
Are there any digital accessibility practices that you often see being missed? Are there any that you know YOU often miss?
The largest practice that I see being missed is that often websites lack colorblind sensitive colour palates. The poor contrast is something that is not usually paid attention to, especially in a world right now where a few seconds of looking at a website can make someone click away or stay. People often create websites that are designed to be as eye grabbing for the regular user as possible without caring about the exceptions. My digital footprint is about as limited as it can be, and so the digital accessibility practices that I have had a chance to actually use are limited to creating powerpoints or silideshows that come with a written document explaining everything on the slides. I personally know that I have missed changing documents to have proper formatting, as I did not know that Ereaders couldn’t distinguish between bolded text and regular text.
Are there any digital accessibility practises that surprised you? Why?
As I mentioned in the last answer, I was unaware that Ereaders could not distinguish between regular and bolded text, or different fonts. This was something that I assumed we had the technology for. I did not consider that the metadata of what actually is a heading and what is just bolded was as big of a deal as it is. Additionally I had not really considered the struggles that people who do not have the use of both hands would face when trying to utilize the internet or any digital tools. It just took me by surprise as it was something that I had never truly thought about.
