Make Your Site More Usable for Elderly and Handicapped Users
by Eric Repec
January 23, 2001
I recently read an article that described a number of issues that prevent disabled and elderly people from enjoying the Internet. I read this with interest because our InetActive™ suite of development tools can help to make your web site easier for disabled and elderly people to use. Let me share a few ideas that you can implement on your own site.
According to recent studies, the number of elderly users on the Internet is growing, however some people have handicaps that hinder their ability to use the Internet. One very common ailment that creates difficulty for many users is poor vision. Often, sites use fonts that are 10 points or less that sit atop intensely bright or extremely dark backgrounds. These sites are difficult to read by people with poor vision. To allow your users to overcome this obstacle, consider adding our InetActive™ Admin component to your site. With InetActive™ Admin, you can allow the user to customize the web interface specifically for their needs. For example, you can allow users to change the size of the fonts displayed in your site for easier reading. Users can also change the colors of certain screen elements to make them more easily viewable.
Since another major issue facing handicap and elderly individuals is the ability to properly operate a mouse, the ability to customize the navigation of your site is important. Most users cannot navigate through the average web site without using a mouse. If your site is average, then someone who has difficulty using a mouse will not be able to use your site.
Using InetActive™ Admin, you can program your site to use keyboard "hot key" navigation that will allow a user to navigate your site entirely with their keyboard. In addition, you can also allow the user to completely customize the order in which navigation elements are displayed on the screen. By integrating our InetActive™ Admin and InetActive™ E-security products together, you can allow users to save the changes they made for all future visits to your site.
These are just a few of the ways that our InetActive™ tools can help you make your web site more accessible to handicap and elderly users. By acknowledging their needs and providing a solution, your elderly and handicap users will reward you with continued patronage and tremendous word-of-mouth advertising.
If you would like to learn more about the InetActive™ tools, visit our Solutions section on our web site or call us at (586) 726-9490.
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