Why are blind people ignored by website designers?

After last week’s column about captchas – the little visual tests that websites deploy alongside password requests to prove that you’re human – we received an email from reader Jo Franks, pointing out how maddening they are for the blind. When I raised this issue on our blog, Thomas Reid commented on a specific instance he’s come across recently: a captcha at the site blogcarnival.com effectively stops blind bloggers from joining in with their project. This obviously isn’t a deliberate ploy. But it’s far from unique.

Captchas are a small part of a whole spectrum of accessibility problems. Blind users normally rely on screen reading software packages that recite out loud any text and links that appear on the screen; while free screen readers are available, it’s only the more sophisticated ones – such as Jaws 9.0 – that are remotely usable, and these cost well over £500. But even Jaws starts to trip up if web designers don’t bother to follow accesibility guidelines. A study back in 2004 showed that 81% of websites failed to meet the most basic criteria for assisting the visually impaired; an organisation called WebAIM has produced a list of just 16 guidelines (the most basic of which is placing a corresponding piece of text behind every image on a page – not particularly difficult). But despite this they’ve seen little overall improvement over the past 10 years.

It’s always going to be an uphill struggle; as website technologies develop, the blind will often be left behind. In the UK, a case is just coming to light of a blind American Express customer, Richard Godfrey-McKay, who used to access his account details online using Jaws screen reading software, but since Amex implemented changes in December 2007 he’s been stripped of that ability. Jaws now handles McKay’s statements by reading all the dates, then all the transaction details, then all the amounts – spectacularly useless – and the RNIB is supporting him with a possible action under the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act). While a number of unsuccessful cases have been brought against inaccessible sites in the past, the fact that Amex have actually withdrawn his facility – albeit unwittingly – may give this particular one more weight and, hopefully, strike a small blow for the visually impaired.