Online communities allow us to publish our own thoughts and ideas as well as connecting with people near and far. People with disability have taken to social media networks and are making a big impact.
The internet, more than other types of media, is all about choice – what you search for and what you view is of your own choosing, so it’s important for people with disability that websites are accessible.
To make a website accessible, there may be options to change the way it looks, which may be increasing font size or adjusting colours for those with vision impairment, creating plain English options for those with an intellectual disability or making website functions, such as links, accessible by keyboard, for those with physical disability. A new program called Access iQ has just been launched, offering resources and guidelines to creating and promoting the need for accessible websites.
If you’ve been to one of our workshops or even participated in our Certificate Training Program, you would have heard about our online challenge, Is your community accessible? We want you to think about how communities, whether they are online or otherwise, are accessible or inaccessible to people with disability.
You can find about more about access and inclusion on our page of suggestions, Is your community accessible?
You can post what you’ve found (as well as photos and video) through our Share your experience form. To get you started, here are some great examples of how the internet can be made accessible:
- How to find accessible media, Media Access Australia
- Social media for people with a disability, Media Access Australia
- Accessible site settings, DaDa (Disability and Deaf Arts)
- Demonstration of how Facebook is read by a screen reader, Access iQ