ActiveTextbook on The Path of Becoming Fully Accessible

Currently, around 15-20% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability. This is the case while most websites and software products are not accessible, making it difficult or even impossible for many people to use.

Web is an essential part of daily life for a lot of people and it is crucial to remove barriers that prevent interaction with or access to websites and software products. One example of accessibility is adding alternative texts to images (alt text). Adding alt texts to photos allows visually impaired users to get access to the image information using screen readers. There is even a business case here since in addition to accessibility, adding alternative texts will greatly help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as it provides better image descriptions, helping search engine crawlers to index an image properly.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides internationally recognized standards for accessibility, the most well-known being the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The accessibility guidelines of W3C are built around 4 core principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Perceivable – Ability to see the content or hear it.

Operable – Ability to use the computer by typing, or by voice.

Understandable – Ability to get clear and simple language.

Robust – Ability to use different assistive technologies.

At Evident Point Software, we understand the importance of implementing accessibility standards, and our goal is to make ActiveTextbook accessible for everyone in the near future. To achieve this, we are working towards full compliance with WCAG.

Accessibility also benefits people without disabilities, since everyone will have a better user experience with better accessibility!