I think saying “disabled” creates the wrong image. When talking about people with disabilities when it come to the internet I’m usually referring to people who’s vision isn’t as sharp as a young, healthy, 20/20 person. Not-as-abled users include:

• Visually disabled people that see very little (shapes, shadows) to nothing at all (completely blind)
• Color deficient users
• Really near-sighted people that usually includes people over 50 years of age
• Dyslexics

What these people have in common is they have a difficult time interpreting web sites. Often they use audio browsers to hear what a web page has on it instead of seeing it.

How important are they… really?

From Accessites.org:

As many as 1 in 10 people in the UK are dyslexic. Given that the current population of the UK is around 60.2 million according to National Statistics Online. This suggests that the number of dyslexics in the UK is likely to be in the region of 6 million.

The number of visually impaired people in the UK in April, 2005 was estimated at 1.7 million according to the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

And this whitepaper (warning: PDF) offers 6 reasons supporting people with disabilities is a good idea (emphasis added by me):

1. Disabilities affect many more people than you may think. Worldwide, 750 million people have a disability and three out of every 10 families are touched by a disability. In the United States, one in five people have some kind of disability and one in 10 has a severe disability. That’s approximately 54 million Americans. In 2001, 180 million people worldwide were blind or visually impaired, including 7.7 million people in the United States. This is a substantial consumer segment that should not be ignored.
2. It’s good business. According to the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, the discretionary income of people with disabilities is $175 billion!
3. The number of people with disabilities – and income to spend – is likely to increase. The likelihood of having a disability increases with age, and the overall population is aging.
4. The Web plays an important role and has significant benefits for people with disabilities. Of the 54 million Americans with a disability, 4 in 10 are online. These users spend more time logged on and surfing the Internet than nondisabled users. On average, they spend 20 hours per week online. In addition, they report more positive feelings about their interactions. Our participants told us over and over how the Internet has opened up a whole new world for them and has given them a sense of independence and freedom. For example, P7 is able to read the newspaper herself for the first time. P5, who was unemployed at the time, spends more than 12 hours a day online, listening to the radio, “reading” Web sites, and chatting. According to the Harris Poll, 48 percent of respondents with disabilities reported that the quality of their lives had been significantly improved by the Internet compared to 27 percent of respondents without a disability.
5. Improving accessibility improves usability for all users. As you’ll see in the findings and guidelines in this paper, making Web sites work for people who use screen readers takes little extra effort while bringing great benefits for everyone.
6. It’s morally the right thing to do.

Even if you don’t care about the moral implications, doing “good business” probably caught your attention! From my point of view - which is making sure all my clients are successful - improving accessibility for the disabled not-as-abled makes the sites work better for everyone.

There are some conflicting reports as to what really works and what doesn’t. The whitepaper above demonstrates that just adhering to the guidelines does not make a web site usable even if it is “accessible”. And this site about dyslexia also shows some conflicting reports about designing for the visually impaired and dyslexics that need to be sorted out.

It’s best to do your homework before building your site or hire a professional and let them worry about it!

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