[Draft] Sample Article for Users

Getting more out of the Web

Older people are going online [in droves / in leaps and bounds / @@] but many experience varying difficulties. Is there anything an older person can do to make their online life easier? In this article we look at difficulties some older people experience, suggest some solutions that may be applicable, and give some advice about contacting the owners of problematic websites.

Common problems

With older age, changes in ability are often a fact of life. Various types and degrees of declining vision, dexterity, hearing and cognitive abilities can affect a person's ability to use computers and the Web, and mean they may have difficulty:

• reading the text due to it's size, color or contrast
• seeing videos and other multimedia
• moving and clicking the mouse and using a keyboard
• hearing audio files and videos
• understanding the website navigation and transaction processes
• concentrating on the task at hand with animations and multimedia on the page

[@@ Websites should have the information and components presented in a way that users can perceive them, the interactive elements and site navigation should be operable by everyone, and the information and operation should be understandable. Some sites don't meet this goal because of design limitations, but sometimes people have the wrong set-up or might be using the wrong techniques. ]

Potential solutions

People experiencing impairments can often customize their computer or web-browsing software or apply some adaptive techniques, to get a better browsing experience. Some of the things that friends, relations, or the local trainer mightn't have told new web users about, because they didn't know about them either, include:

• changing the color scheme to get more contrast
• changing the text size to make it easier to read and easier to click links
• pressing the 'Tab' key to move between links and move around in forms
• adjusting the mouse sensitivity and cursor size
• trying different keyboard and mouse options
• turning on captions in video (though they're not always provided)
• blocking pop-up windows and stopping moving advertisements

These and many more options have been described in a document from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) called "Better Web Browsing: Tips for Customizing Your Computer". This document gives lots of tips and then points to other locations on the Web where step-by-step guides or more complete explanations exist.

Getting action

Sometimes, even with customization, a website can still be difficult to use. Providing feedback to the organization can help improve the accessibility of websites for you and many other people who use the site. WAI has prepared another document - "Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites" - that provides guidance on encouraging organizations to make their websites accessible, particularly when accessibility barriers are found on a website. The steps, described in detail in the document, are to:

1. Identify key contacts
2. Describe the problem
3. Follow-up as needed

The document includes some sample emails, and some actions to consider if there is not a satisfactory response.

Hopefully, with the tips provided by WAI, and some encouragement to organizations with problematic website, more people will find many more websites easier to use in the future and get more out of the Web.

@@ ... needs punchier ending?

References:

• Better Web Browsing: Tips for Customizing Your Computer - www.w3.org/WAI/users/browsing.html
• Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites - www.w3.org/WAI/users/inaccessible.html
• Web Accessibility and Older People: Meeting the Needs of Ageing Web Users - www.w3.org/WAI/older-users/