Facebook and Web site accessibility
March 31st, 2009
Pemaquid has some state agency Clients who would love to partake of social media just like everybody else. The challenge is that the State of Maine has an accessibility policy that requires agencies to make sure they provide information in a way that’s accessible to the visually and physically impaired.
Enter Facebook. Facebook is loaded with Ajax-y goodness, the kind that’s hard for screen readers and other assistive devices to pick up. So, is Facebook accessible? Strictly speaking, perhaps it is. Here’s the more important question: is Facebook usable?
I posed the question to a colleague who’s been blind since birth and who has a Facebook account. His response:
Honestly, I hate the Facebook site. I hated the old one and try though I might, I don’t find the new layout much improved.
Admittedly, there now seems to exist heading navigation which is nice, but not knowing when pages update and so forth poses a real problem where accessibility is concerned.
I generally use Facebook via the mobile site which is much more accessible, but at the cost of a lot of features.
For example, there’s no way to access group discussion boards via the mobile site, certain notifications don’t show up and applications, well they can just be forgotten.
Still, for basic FB use, the mobile site is definitely the most efficient, most accessible way.
