Tips for making information universally accessible
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Saturday, March 15, 2008
Many people talk about the effect the Internet has on democratizing access to information, but as
someone who has been visually impaired since my teenage years, I can certainly speak to the
profound impact it has had on my life.
In everyday life, things like a sheet of paper—and anything written on it—are completely
inaccessible to a blind or visually impaired user. But with the Internet a new world has opened up
for me and so many others. Thanks to modern technology like screen readers, web pages, books, and
web applications are now at our fingertips.
In order to help the visually impaired find the most relevant, useful information on the web, and
as quickly as possible, we developed
Accessible Search. Google
Accessible Search identifies and prioritizes search results that are more easily used by blind and
visually impaired users—that means pages that are clean and simple (think of the Google
home page!) and that can load without images.
Why should you take the time to make your site more
accessible? In
addition to the service you'll be doing for the visually-impaired community, accessible sites are
more easily crawled, which is a first step in your site's ability to appear in search results.
So what can you do to make your sites more accessible? Well first of all, think simple. In its
current version, Google Accessible Search looks at a number of signals by examining the HTML
markup found on a web page. It tends to favor pages that degrade gracefully: pages with few visual
distractions and that are likely to render well with images turned off. Flashing banners and
dancing animals are probably the worst thing you could put on your site if you want its content to
be read by an adaptive technology like a screen reader.
Here are some basic tips:
Keep web pages easy to read, avoiding visual clutter and ensuring that the primary purpose of
the web page is immediately accessible with full keyboard navigation.
There are many organizations and online resources that offer website owners and authors guidance
on how to make websites and pages more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. The W3C
publishes numerous guidelines including
Web Content Access Guidelines
that are helpful for website owners and authors.
As with regular search, the best thing you can do with respect to making your site rank highly
is to create unique, compelling content. In fact, you can think of the Google crawler as the
world's most influential blind user. The content that matters most to the Googlebot is the
content that matters most to the blind user: good, quality text.
It's also worth reviewing your content to see how accessible it is for other end users. For
example, try browsing your site on a monochrome display or try using your site without a mouse.
You may also consider your site's usability through a mobile device like a Blackberry or iPhone.
Fellow webmasters, thanks for taking the time to better understand principles of accessibility.
In my next post I'll talk about how to make sure that critical site features, like site
navigation, are accessible. Until then!
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe internet significantly improves access to information for visually impaired individuals through technologies like screen readers.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Accessible Search prioritizes web pages that are clean, simple, and easily navigable without images, aiding visually impaired users in finding information efficiently.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAccessible websites benefit both visually impaired users and website owners, as they are more easily crawled and indexed by search engines.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsite owners can improve accessibility by simplifying page layouts, reducing visual clutter, and providing alternative text for images, aligning with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCreating high-quality, text-based content benefits both website accessibility and search engine optimization, as it is easily processed by screen readers and search engine crawlers.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google developed Accessible Search to help visually impaired users find relevant web content quickly. This tool prioritizes web pages with clean, simple designs that load without images. Websites can improve accessibility by minimizing visual clutter, ensuring keyboard navigation, and providing quality text-based content. The W3C's Web Content Access Guidelines offer further guidance. Accessible websites are also more easily crawled by search engines, enhancing their search result visibility. Testing sites without a mouse or on monochrome displays also improves usability.\n"],null,["# Tips for making information universally accessible\n\nSaturday, March 15, 2008\n\n\nMany people talk about the effect the Internet has on democratizing access to information, but as\nsomeone who has been visually impaired since my teenage years, I can certainly speak to the\nprofound impact it has had on my life.\n\n\nIn everyday life, things like a sheet of paper---and anything written on it---are completely\ninaccessible to a blind or visually impaired user. But with the Internet a new world has opened up\nfor me and so many others. Thanks to modern technology like screen readers, web pages, books, and\nweb applications are now at our fingertips.\n\n\nIn order to help the visually impaired find the most relevant, useful information on the web, and\nas quickly as possible, we developed\n[Accessible Search](https://labs.google.com/accessible/). Google\nAccessible Search identifies and prioritizes search results that are more easily used by blind and\nvisually impaired users---that means pages that are clean and simple (think of the Google\nhome page!) and that can load without images.\n\n\nWhy should you take the time to make your site more\n[accessible](/s/results/search/blog/?q=accessibility)? In\naddition to the service you'll be doing for the visually-impaired community, accessible sites are\nmore easily crawled, which is a first step in your site's ability to appear in search results.\n\n\nSo what can you do to make your sites more accessible? Well first of all, think simple. In its\ncurrent version, Google Accessible Search looks at a number of signals by examining the HTML\nmarkup found on a web page. It tends to favor pages that degrade gracefully: pages with few visual\ndistractions and that are likely to render well with images turned off. Flashing banners and\ndancing animals are probably the worst thing you could put on your site if you want its content to\nbe read by an adaptive technology like a screen reader.\n\n\nHere are some basic tips:\n\n1. Keep web pages easy to read, avoiding visual clutter and ensuring that the primary purpose of the web page is immediately accessible with full keyboard navigation.\n2. There are many organizations and online resources that offer website owners and authors guidance on how to make websites and pages more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. The W3C publishes numerous guidelines including [Web Content Access Guidelines](https://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/) that are helpful for website owners and authors.\n3. As with regular search, the best thing you can do with respect to making your site rank highly is to create unique, compelling content. In fact, you can think of the Google crawler as the world's most influential blind user. The content that matters most to the Googlebot is the content that matters most to the blind user: good, quality text.\n4. It's also worth reviewing your content to see how accessible it is for other end users. For example, try browsing your site on a monochrome display or try using your site without a mouse. You may also consider your site's usability through a mobile device like a Blackberry or iPhone.\n\n\nFellow webmasters, thanks for taking the time to better understand principles of accessibility.\nIn my next post I'll talk about how to make sure that critical site features, like site\nnavigation, are accessible. Until then!\n\n\nWritten by\n[T.V. Raman](https://emacspeak.sf.net/raman),\nResearch Scientist"]]
