Web Content Accessibility and Mobile Web:
Making a Web Site Accessible Both for People with Disabilities and for Mobile Devices
Page Contents
Quick links: Relationship between MWBP and WCAG, Shared Web Experiences
Introduction
With global mobile phone use at an all time high, there has been a surge of interest in developing Web sites that are accessible from a mobile device. Similarly, making Web sites accessible for people with disabilities is an integral part of high quality Web sites, and in some cases a legal requirement.
Most Mobile Web specialists don't know about design issues for people with disabilities. Likewise, most Web accessibility specialists don't know Mobile Web design best practices.
Web sites can more efficiently meet both goals when developers understand the significant overlap between making a Web site accessible for a mobile device and for people with disabilities. The similarities are introduced below along with benefits of addressing both and resources with technical details of the overlap.
Similar Barriers
Users of mobile devices and people with disabilities experience similar barriers when interacting with Web content. For example, mobile phone users will have a hard time if a Web site's navigation requires the use of a mouse because they typically only have an alphanumeric keypad. Similarly, desktop computer users with a motor disability will have a hard time using a Web site if they can't use a mouse. Additionally, people with disabilities may use a mobile device to access the Web site.
Similar Solutions
The W3C provides guidelines/standards on making accessible Web content and best practices for content mobile-friendly.
- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a guide for making Web sites accessible to people with disabilities.
- The Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) is a guide for making Web sites usable from a mobile device.
There is an overlap between MWBP and WCAG. For example, the MWBP best practice "Label all form controls appropriately and explicitly associate labels with form controls" corresponds with the WCAG 1.0 checkpoint "12.4 Associate labels explicitly with their controls" and WCAG 2.0 technique "H44: Using label elements to associate text labels with form controls".
Doing Both
Following these two guidelines makes your Web content more accessible to everyone regardless of situation, environment, or device. Designing to the guidelines together, instead of separately, can make the process more efficient.
Web sites that already meet WCAG or MWBP are already well on the way to meeting the other.
Understanding the overlap also strengthens the business case for adopting WCAG or MWBP in a Web site that already complies with one, or for adopting both together. See also Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization.
Resources
The following resources provide a detailed mapping of the overlap between the barriers and solutions for making Web sites accessible to people with disabilities and usable on mobile devices.
- Shared Web Experiences: Barriers Common to Mobile Device Users and People with Disabilities lists Web interaction that it similar by a user with a disability and by a user with a mobile device. It links to recommendations for designing Web content without these barriers from WCAG and MWBP.
- Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Working Draft includes the following pages:
- From MWBP to WCAG 1.0 and From MWBP to WCAG 2.0 are designed for those who already know MWBP and want to learn how they relate to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
- From WCAG 1.0 to MWBP and From WCAG 2.0 to MWBP are designed for those who already know WCAG and want to learn how it relates to the Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP).