Disabled Users
The following descriptions, whilst not comprehensive, are intended to give some idea of how people with disabilities use the Web.
- A user with colour blindness
- A user with Repetitive Stress Injury
- A deaf or hearing impaired user
- Blind user
- User with Dyslexia
- Visually impaired user with hand tremor
- Downs Syndrome user
- Deaf & visually impaired user
A user with colour blindness
Has difficulty reading the text on many web sites as, to him, they seem to use similar shades of brown. This is actually due to the usage of colour combinations that are indistinguishable to him because of his red/green colour blindness. In this particular scenario, access to higher contrast background/text combinations may be of some help.
A user with Repetitive Stress Injury
Uses a combination of speech recognition software and an alternative keyboard but cannot use a mouse or other hand-operated pointing device without aggravating her problem. She encounters problems when using speech recognition software to navigate web sites that contain audio output and would prefer to use the keyboard to wherever possible - especially where she has the opportunity to use keyboard shortcut navigation.
A deaf or hearing impaired user
Cannot access any audio information unless full text transcripts are also made available. He finds email and web-based chat forums an excellent medium for extending communication without having to rely on a sign-language interpreter.
Blind user
Uses a screen reader to interpret what is displayed on the screen and generate a combination of audio and braille output. She may be accustomed to listening to audio output at a far greater speed than a hearing user but may also use refreshable braille output to check the exact wording of text, since braille enables her to read the language on a page more precisely. She finds that inadequately implemented tables on web sites present difficulties as they present information to her in a highly confused manner.
User with Dyslexia
May use text-to-speech software to assist with the visual reading of text but he may also rely heavily on some graphic/symbolic illustration to help him navigate and focus on specific sections. Animated, or moving, graphics, however, are problematic and make it very difficult for him to concentrate. When searching for information, he may benefit from being offered a variety of searching strategies or information structures e.g. by category, by name etc. A low contrast background/text combination may also be of some help.
Visually impaired user with hand tremor
As with the previous scenario, this user also finds moving graphics distracting. She may use a screen reader to assist with reading onscreen or an extra-large monitor or simply utilise extra-large text display options on a standard monitor. She may also use an alternative pointing device such as an adapted joystick or action button to counteract her hand tremor. On some web sites, she finds pages where the text display is fixed and very small, or the colour contrast between background and text are low. These pages are very for her to read.
Downs Syndrome user
Has difficulty reading and, therefore, cannot extract any information from purely textual web pages - especially if they do not use clear and simple language. He prefers sites that use pictures, or symbols, to assist navigation and are clearly organised. Too many options, at any one time present, a cognitive overload for him and he benfits from a tree-like organisational structure where information on any one page is limited to a select number of clearly defined choice. He also enjoys audio output and music when it is available.
Deaf & visually impaired user
May use a screen magnifier or screen reader with refreshable braille depending on the level of visual impairment. Where there is some visual ability, patterned backgrounds present her with reading difficulties as do those displays where the text contrast is poor. She may also use a portable braille device to download information from a site and store it for later use.
