Meet web accessibility levels for older people with inSuit Senior™ Interface
1 December 2020
How can I meet Web Accessibility levels to help older people? To start off, it is important to understand their context, as many seniors face barriers when browsing the Internet due to some limitation or lack of knowledge.
This means that they often depend on the help of their family, friends, or neighbours whenever they need to do something online.
According to the State Observatory on Disability, there are more than 3 million people over 65 living in Spain. Of these, more than 90% of those over 75 live independently, and more than 50% of these live alone.
According to this report, a large number of senior citizens have Internet access, yet50% do not feel they have the necessary skills to deal with the digital world, a context which currently requires them to be connected.
This is an important group of people which is in constant need of accessible online services and solutions that will allow them to preserve their autonomy and wellbeing with the support of digital tools.
Older people need digital access in order to remain in contact with their family or friends and to stay abreast of the latest information, services, and recreation offered online. That is why it is paramount to ensure that they have the required level of web accessibility.
What can we do to guarantee the right level of web accessibility for senior citizens?
The first thing we need to consider is that web accessibility for senior citizens is much more than larger typefaces and buttons.
First, we need to understand that as we get older, there is a decline in our vision, our ability to process information, and other skills. It is therefore important to maintain good standards and adaptations that will enable this group of people to:
- Easily adapt to the varying light intensities, in order to distinguish colour contrast.
- Be able to browse using clear and simple icons.
- Be able to enlarge the screen easily without losing information.
- Be provided with an alternative to web actions requiring precise movements.
- Be able to use common browsing structures. These are repeated in each of the web page sections thus facilitating understanding of and interaction with the web page.
- Easily interpret information existing on the Web, for example: text blocks, simple and straightforward information, clear links and instructions, etc.
Based on each of the above recommendations and others that facilitate access to existing information on the Internet for senior citizens, inSuit has developed an optimal and simple solution that ensures the right web accessibility levels for this group of people.
This product is called inSuit Senior™, an interface which supports browsing with the use of a mouse to highlight content, structure, mouse pointers, links, and buttons to convert text to speech.
These features represent the main support for older people who are vision-impaired or have reduced digital skills; as well as for people with other related impairments such as: eye strain, dyslexia, presbyopia, etc.
This is how inSuit has become the tool offering Web Accessibility solutions through different technical aids, so that everyone can browse the Internet without barriers in a way that adapts to the needs and preferences of their user profile.
How does inSuit work to ensure Web Accessibility?
inSuit is a high-quality technological tool that ensures Internet accessibility. Based on WCAG and WAI-ARIA criteria and customized by experts in accessibility and usability, inSuit transforms your website in real time, eliminating the various barriers existing on the Internet today.
It is important to note that because it provides these aids from the cloud, inSuit undergoes constant development, allowingall users to immediately benefit from the tool’s continuous updates and improvements in Web Accessibility and Usability.
