Category: Web

Designing Websites with Consideration for People with Cognitive Impairments and Learning Difficulties: Researching Some Solutions

February 8th, 2005 · accessibility, Web 4 comments

Today is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day. I learnt something today while frying some pancakes at tea-time; bananas do not fry. They melt, then melt some more and end up a big pile of goop.

Something I have been learning on a more long-term basis is how to design websites while considering people with cognitive impairments and learning difficulties, an aspect of Web accessibility that designers seem to forget about sometimes. Recently, I have been on the look out for more resources on this topic. Here are a few things I have found.

There have been some notable articles and discussions over the past couple of weeks, which I have found insightful. At the end of January, Gez Lemon posted an overview of a recent article published by Web Usability called “An Accessibility Frontier: Cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties” (by Roger Hudson, Russ Weakley and Peter Firminger). It provides some useful advice and examples, but should not be used as definitive solutions. I don’t think there are any definitive solutions.

While researching, I have found something that I have not seen publicised very much, possibly because it may be a little old now. Mencap (the leading UK charity working with and for people with a learning disability) have a publication called “Am I making myself clear?” (first printed in 2000 and last reprinted in 2002), which gives some advice about how to write with consideration for people with cognitive impairments and learning difficulties.

This guide is available from the Accessibility category of Mencap’s online publications library. It’s free from copyright and so is freely distributable. Mencap’s website is a little too dependent on JavaScript for my liking, so here is a direct link to the (rather large) download: “Am I making myself clear?” (PDF, 947 KB). Mencap have also published a guide to making websites easy to use for people with a learning disability called “Making your website accessible” (PDF, 81.7 KB).

I’ve noted that Mr Olsson and Mr Wellock are in the process of assembling a nice resource. I look forward to the release of this nearer the summer.

What I Have Learned So Far

There’s quite a lot you can do to make content more accessible and accommodate people with cognitive disabilities or learning difficulties. However, it is debatable whether or not such measures are always necessary. Writing content in the simplest language possible is a good start, but it may not always be appropriate to do so.

You can supplement paragraphs of text with an appropriate image. In my opinion, this is not something that should be forced. If an idea for a supporting photo or graphic comes to mind then fine, but otherwise, you might just be making things worse, not better! If you aim for one or two main points per paragraph, your content stands a better chance of being understood. The thing to remember is that such images are not decorative. They should have purpose and be part of the content, not displayed via CSS.

Similarly, information can be supported by audio or even video. However, facilitating understanding through such enhancements is not required in many situations and is often out of range for the majority of project budgets. Making video accessible for the Web is a minefield in itself, so I won’t go into that. I have my reservations about supplementary audio, but I will cover that in the second part of this article, “Thinking About More Advanced Solutions”.

Web accessibility can be strengthened through providing options. A variety of style-switcher methods can be used to give users the chance to configure a website to better suit their individual preferences. Offering a choice of font sizes, font types, colour combinations, layouts, etc through flexible use of CSS can help make your websites more accessible. But, to borrow a phrase used by Patrick H. Lauke, the onus is also on the user. In other words, the functionality offered by style-switchers can often be found as features in modern browsers and users should be able to familiarise themselves with their browser enough to make style-switchers redundant. There is more discussion along these lines on Accessify Forum.

Some Other Resources

Here are some other slightly older resources that I’ve used:

Where Now?

As yet, I haven’t really developed an approach to implementing the techniques discussed in these resources. However, I have taken the advice on board and have begun to pay more attention to such issues when building a site. Gradually, through trying out different techniques and assessing their effectiveness, making content easier to understand might come naturally.

I would like to get more of a “feel” for this. How do others view the techniques mentioned in these articles? Do any of you use a specific approach to accommodate users with cognitive disabilities?

Updates

3 Mar 2005

Also worth a mention is the Plain English Campaign and the free guides they publish on their website. One guide in particular gives some advice on building clear websites, but nothing particularly new for most designers.

I have also found some information at the Easy Info project. It’s not the most accessible of websites, but some of the information is helpful and the site seems to be kept up to date.

18 Apr 2005

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about posting more on this. I’ve just been too busy to finish writing it up. It’s a complicated topic and I’m finding it quite difficult to research, but I hope to write more soon. In the meantime, WebAIM‘s information on Cognitive Disabilities is very useful. Also, Gez Lemon is a great thinker in this area and his posts make very interesting reading.

20 Oct 2006

I have fixed broken links and made minor updates to the text.

12 Apr 2007

Further fixes to broken links.

Web Design Roles

November 24th, 2004 · business, Web 6 comments

As the Web evolves, it’s inevitable that the job of creating websites evolves too. As those out there in the industry will already know, the roles of the “Web Designer” can be diverse, especially on larger projects, making it more of an umbrella job description.

Anyway, I’ve decided to write about some of my thoughts about the job of a Web Designer. I also thought it might be interesting to ask people what role (or roles) they see themselves as playing in the world of Web Design.

What is Web Design?

It’s probably not a great idea to start out with what is really an aside, but bear with me on this one.

Jakob Nielsen recently wrote that “Web Design” is a misnomer. It got me thinking and I’d have to agree to some extent, but my view is slightly different to Nielsen’s. People don’t design the Web itself, but the sites reached via the Web – “Website Design” would be more accurate, but I’m just pedantic. I guess it doesn’t really matter what is the accepted phrase for referring to people who build websites – I know that I will call it “Web Design” anyway.

What I don’t like is how Web Design is often misconstrued to mean putting something pretty up online. We have known for a long time that the Web is an information medium at heart and not a visual one. This is an important concept that I feel many designers and design agencies forget on a regular basis. On an ideal Web, all designers would take information gathered by the client (or help them collate information) and allow that content to drive design. The classic maxim applies: Web Design is not Print Design. Neither is it just about Graphic Design, so simply slicing up a Photoshop comp and putting it online is not enough.

So what was the point of my aside? I wanted to raise a couple of questions. If so many designers don’t know their job and how to do it properly, how do people really know what to expect from them? How are prospective clients to know whether their website is going to fit with their purpose? Does it matter?

Roles of the Web Designer

What is perhaps a little more difficult to define is the role of the Web Designer. Recently, I’ve been thinking about all the different “modes” I have when building a website. Being self-employed, these modes can be wide and varied, and I am increasingly appreciating the need for collaboration on projects to make them stronger and generally just better.

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and it can be important to develop a specialism or a style which sets you apart from the crowd. A problem here is that I like to explore and to learn. Hence, I will often try to vary my roles so that I can develop my skills in different areas and keep what I do interesting. I’ll have to admit now that this can cause some areas to be weaker than others between projects. This is a compromise I do not want to make if I can help it. It’s near impossible to fulfil all the roles required by Web Design today, so collaboration is an important aspect, whether it be with other agencies or freelancers.

A common distinction in roles seems to be between Web Designers and Web Developers, but even these roles can overlap. As I see it (and I could be wrong) designers are responsible for structure, layout, visual wonders, etc while developers are more geared towards developing server-side magic, applications and interaction. But there’s a lot more going on than that.

Here are some of the roles I can think of which I perform, and others that I have seen in use:

  • Project Manager
  • Website Designer
  • Website Architect (implying working with information architecture / structure?)
  • Website Developer/Engineer
  • Internet Developer (another misnomer?)
  • Graphic Designer or Web Graphic Designer (I’ve seen this role described as a person who “tries to make Web pages look the same in every browser”. I’m not totally agreed on that one. Anyone for “CSS Engineer”?)
  • Multimedia Designer
  • Web Typographer
  • Flash Designer
  • User Interface / Interaction Designer
  • Web Usability Specialist
  • Web Accessibility Specialist
  • Web Marketing Specialist
  • Search Engine Optimisation Specialist
  • Copy Writer, Web Editor or Web Writer
  • Web Writer
  • Web Hosting Technician
  • Webmaster
  • Software Engineer

This probably isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s what came to mind while thinking about what I do, or have done in the past.

What Roles Do You Play?

So what do you do? Are you a multi-tasking stress monkey like me? Are you a jargon-loving, Planetarian-playing techie? Are you the arty, expressive graphic designer? I want to know, damn it!

Educating the People

November 15th, 2004 · business, Web 6 comments

Right, so this blog hasn't been fed too well so far, but as I've said before, it isn't on a high-fibre diet yet (i.e. it isn't a regular thing).

So far, the blog's quite empty. It hasn't helped that I've been away for the last week! (For those who have asked, I had a nice birthday week, thanks! I've been visiting folks back home and growing a bit of a beard so I don't feel so out of place on Accessify Forum). I've not written a whole lot about the Web Design business, which I'd like to start doing, so here's one for ya!

Letting Everyone Down

I'm finding it increasingly saddening to find websites that suck – especially when the website belongs to a Web Design company. I get annoyed at the number of Web Design companies I stumble across whose websites are utterly atrocious.

Now, before I get too far down this road, I must admit my own design failures. For example, the November 5th website has had its moments – sometimes embarrassing ones – which have mostly been down to its age and the fact that I've learnt a lot over the last year since its launch. I'm also aware that there are still issues with the site, something I hope to iron out with the redesign I'm working on.

Anyway, last week I found a website that purported to be dedicated to getting the best online marketing that money can buy. They are an off-shoot of an established Web Design company and so have little excuse for the poor quality of their own website. Guess what? It works fine in Internet Explorer on Windows, but does it work properly in any other browser? Does it bollocks!

They pretend to have a clue about SEO. They don't appear to have discovered the advantages of designing with Web standards. Their navigation bar just doesn't work in anything but IE. No idea about accessibility. A lovely marquee is thrown in there for good measure.

Sound familiar? Right. Sorry, rant over.

Companies like these are letting their customers down. Companies like these are letting the Web Design and Development industry down. People who hire companies like these are letting themselves down. Last, but not least, these websites let their users down.

So, what do I propose? Education.

An Exercise in Education

I get the feeling that some people really don't know that the Web is evolving at a phenomenal rate. I like to think that I'm keeping up with the flow, and I am always learning thanks to the many resources on the Web (I'd particularly like to thank all the folks over at Accessify Forum). In my quest to improve my own expertise, I have found many sources of information, so many that I can't always keep up with the information hit.

The resources are out there for designers and developers, and they are looked for. However, I've found that there are few resources that are aimed at other audiences. What about website owners? What about the average user? There are studies into what the users expect from websites, but do they know what they should be expecting from a website?

What's my reason for jabbering on about this? Well, I'm trying to get to the bottom of why people hire bad design companies, or more specifically, companies who don't know what they are doing. I can only think that it comes down to a general lack of knowledge. Well, the resources are out there for the design companies to learn from, and a lot of us try our hardest to show our clients the advantages of what I've come to call “best practices” (of course, there isn't always a best way of doing things), but where do our clients go to for advice on what to expect from us as designers? In the UK, I have found basic advice on sites such as Business Link, but nothing much more.

A recent article by Mike Davidson about browser evolution got me thinking more on educating people about the Web, so I thought it was about time I posted something here about my ideas.

So, for some time I have been playing with the idea of starting a new resource aimed at people who don't necessarily have (or need) technical knowledge of the Web – the businesses and organisations who own websites and are our potential clients. However, I am wary as to whether such a resource will be useful to people, and whether it is looked for. Would there be any value in a website that educates its visitors about what to expect from the websites they commission?

I know that people don't just hire whoever they stumble across first, or whoever bamboozles them first with technical jargon. Even people who don't have a clue about the technicalities of the Web aren't stupid. People look for benefits, but how do they know that they are getting those benefits? And how do they know whether they need those benefits and not others? I think these people could do with a helping hand.

So, it's time to educate about “best practice” – the importance of accessibility, marketing performance, usability. But it's not just other designers who need to catch the bug – others need to know about what to expect from Web Designers.

And it's open to the floor…

out-law.com Website Compliance Seminar

October 28th, 2004 · accessibility, Web 2 comments

I got up at 5.30am today to head over to Manchester on the train to attend the Website Compliance breakfast seminar organised by out-law.com. It was odd for me to be up before dawn – it only really dawned on me (no pun intended) just how early it was when it began to get light after over an hour of sitting on the train.

Anyway, the train was half an hour late (aren’t they always?) and so I missed the beginning of the seminar. Luckily it had started later than advertised anyway, so I hadn't missed much. It was nice to have identified Accessify Forum regular Patrick H Lauke (a.k.a. redux) when I arrived and meet someone from the forum.

I was pleased to find the hosts from Masons Solicitors, the law firm behind out-law.com, were well-informed and gave a good overview of the legal issues surrounding e-commerce. Obviously, I was interested in what they had to say about accessibility, and with the seminar having a focus on legislation, I was hoping that they would be accurate and informative.

Top marks to them for clearly emphasising that fact that a website constitutes a service and are covered by Part III of the DDA which has been in force since October 1999. They further emphasised that websites do not come under the heading of “physical access” and therefore are not affected by Part IV of the DDA which came into force this month. Either way, it’s all a bit academic now that the October 2004 deadline has passed!

Another thing to note is that there was not one utterance of “Bobby” throughout the entire seminar – not even in a room full of suits.

After the seminar, another member of Accessify Forum came over and introduced himself – Nathan Briggs (a.k.a. vigo). I wasn’t sure how many people from the forum were going to turn up – I already knew that Patrick would be there – so it was nice to find that someone else had made it to the seminar as well.

On leaving Masons, we found ourselves on a mission to find an open cafe so that we could sit and have a chat over coffee. We finally found a little cafe called History – a nice little place with a poster outside with Arnie saying “You’ll be back!” – I remember thinking that there was no way I’d find this place again!

The three of us talked about some current projects, standards and accessibility (duh!), general nonsense and a variety of tangents! I think I may have spawned an idea for another of Patrick’s experiments – another Firefox extension.

We were discussing some of my recent thoughts on sonification of Web content and the possibility of rendering in surround sound, when Patrick came up with an idea for converting markup elements into pitches. This differs from my thoughts so far in that I have been considering how the content of documents could be converted to sound rather than the markup. Coming from a musical background, I guess I really should have thought of that – an HTML score! Anyway, I’d be interested to see what Patrick manages to cook up from that. I really must get around to my own experimentation with Firefox extensions!

On other thoughts, Nathan and I chatted some more over a coffee at Manchester Piccadilly station before heading back home. I put forward my thoughts on starting a resource on best practices in Web Design aimed at business executives. It would be an attempt to educate businesses on what they should be expecting from their website design teams and/or consultants. I’m not saying that business executives don’t know anything about Web Design, but I am convinced that there is a need for something like what I have in mind.

The seminar we had just been to was actually quite good at aiming at this sort of audience. Personally, I find myself getting too technical when talking about anything related to Web Design, so I’m looking to get input from a variety of sources to try to get points across in plain language. The resource wouldn’t be aimed at Web developers, but I guess it could be useful to them in explaining issues to people who really don’t know about Web Design.

Perhaps I will write about this in another entry – this one is already quite long! Projects, projects, projects! Lots of ideas and not enough time – or space on my brain drive.

Elsewhere