Web accessibility for situational challenges
This background reading is relevant to all University of Exeter web editors, and describes various situations that can be alleviated by web accessibility practices.
The specifics of how to implement these practices are not covered here. Web editors using University-supported web editing platforms will cover that material as part of their training.
For further details, please refer to supported and unsupported web editing platforms.
Overview
Examples of situational challenges impeding web access:
- glare on a mobile screen from bright sunlight, making it harder to read poorly contrasted content.
- background noise in the location where the information is being accessed, making it difficult to hear or to be heard.
- not being able to see a screen clearly due to a person not having their glasses or losing a contact lens.
- accessing content on a portable device while on shaking ground, or travelling as a passenger in an unsteadily moving vehicle, making it difficult to carry out precise touchscreen actions.
- accessing content in a very busy environment, with a lot of distractions, affecting cognitive processing.
People affected by these situations will experience them as short-term and temporary, which means they will often be unaware of alternative ways of accessing web content, and in most cases will not have specialist assistive technologies to help them.
