There are many things that a web developer can do with the text on a web page that aid the accessibility of a page. These are discussed below.
If a web page uses more than one language e.g. the site can be translated from English into German, then it is very important that the web developer identifies the change of language in the HTML code. They can do this using the lang attribute. A source code example is given below.
<p>hello</p>
<span lang="fr">bonjour</span>
It is very important that a web developer clarify's all of the abbreviation used on a page for a blind or visually impaired user who is using a screen reader. They can do this by using the ABBR element. The screen reader will read the abbreviation assigned to the ABBR element in the context of the page and then will use the information in the TITLE attribute to output the extended version of the abbreviation. A source example is given below for the World Wide Web Consortium.
<ABBR TITLE="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</ABBR>
The ACRONYM element is very similar to the ABBR element. The difference between the two is the ABBR should be used when something has been shortened e.g. W3C is short for World Wide Web Consortium. The ACRONYM element should be used for acronyms e.g. words that have been shortened to just there first letters e.g. HTML for Hyper-Text Markup Language or CS for Computer Studies. Similar to the ABBR element, the ACROYMN element contains the shortened version of the word while the TITLE element contains the extended version of the ACRONYM. A source code examples for CS is given below.
<ACRONYM TITLE="Computer Studies">CS</ACRONYM>
It is very important that a web developer mark up the heading correctly on a page using H1, H2, H3 etc, and not using specific cont sizes such as Times New Roman 12 in the HTML source code. Correctly coded headings can be a vital accessibility aid for a blind user who is using a screen reader. Certain screen readers such as Windows-Eyes using the markup of the headings on a page to allow a user to tab between the headings on a page, Although Jaws does not support this feature.
If a web developer is using Cascading Style Sheets to controls the presentation and layout of a page then correctly coded headings using H1, H2, H3 etc are very important, as certain formatting is often associated with certain types of heading in the style sheet. For example H1 could be defined as Verdana size 24 in the style sheet, but if the H1 heading is not used anywhere within the HTML source of the page then the formatting that is specified in the style sheet will not be applied.
The old method of marking up quotations was to use the blockquote element. However this is now being replaced by a new methods of marking up quotations, one of which is called BLOCKQUOTE CITE “” where the URL of the web page that is being quoted from is placed between the speech marks. However browser support for the blockquote element is poor, only Mozilla and Netscape 6 or later support the blockquote element.
If a web developer wants to include a direct quote on the page from another source e.g. a book, then it is recommended that they markup the quote using the Q cite element. This is considered to make it easier for assistive technology such as screen readers to identify quotes, because the Q cite element separates the quote from the other text on the page as the Q cite elements automatically inserts the required speech marks. However browser support for the Q cite element is also poor. Source code examples of the BLOCKCITE and Q cite elements are given below.
<BLOCKQUOTE CITE="www.livjm.ac.uk">
<Q CITE="www.livjm.ac.uk">Dream, Plan, Achieve</Q>
Web developers should use fonts that stand out such as Tahoma, Verdana, Ariel and Sans-Serif fonts as these are all considered very easy to read. Other more formal fonts such as Times New Roman are not recommended. Whether or not a font type is appropriate for a web page is a matter of human judgement. The web developer may find it useful to obtain some user feedback on this issue.
There is a myth amongst web developers that accessible websites need to use large fonts, this is not true. Visually impaired users use screen magnifiers in order to be able to view the text on the screen. However the text should not be too small, it should be an appropriate size such as size or size 14 and of course headings should be a slightly larger font size to the text e.g. size 18. Due to the availability of screen magnifiers the font size does not really effect visually impaired users however if a font is too small it can effect the usability of a website for everyone.