The difficulties listed above translate into barriers that people with intellectual disabilities face in terms of digital accessibility of museums. These include:
- overly difficult language in the information appearing on the website (choice of words or the way sentences are phrased, type and size of font used, composition of text on the page, use of photographs, illustrations and symbols)
- difficulty in handling complex and rapidly changing web pages and mobile application screens
- too little use of graphic elements supporting the text, such as drawings, icons, diagrams or graphics
- infrequent use of audio and visual technologies (recordings, files sent over the Internet) – a person with intellectual/social disabilities prefers listening and watching to reading
- lack of pre-guides on the museum’s website describing the place and the rules (for people with autism such publications facilitate preparation for the visit, help to “tame” the space)
- inadequately prepared multimedia presentations, e.g. during workshops (images should be presented in full screen, without additional icons)
- too infrequent use of multimedia by museums as a form of interest for visitors with intellectual disabilities
Source of image: Freepik
In summary: when creating accessible websites, it is important to consider:
- Any non-text content should be provided with an alternative text.
- Multimedia should have an alternative to image and sound in the form of audio description and subtitles.
- Information should be suitable for processing (adaptation) by automatic tools.
- Information should be easily distinguishable from the background.
- All elements and functions must be accessible from the keyboard.
- The user must be given time to read and/or listen to the information.
- Content likely to cause epileptic seizures should be labelled accordingly.
- The site should have a convenient system to assist in navigation.
- Content published on the website should allow adjustment of font size.
- The website should behave in a predictable manner.
- The user should be assisted during data entry.
- The website should be produced reliably and in accordance with technical specifications.
How to evaluate and assess the current accessibility of the digital content offered by museums and cultural institutions? Tools for identifying digital accessibility obstacles in the visual and written contents:
- Automatic tests (only detect some of the errors and problems)
- Validator – validates the HTML code of the tested page against HTML and XHTM standards
- Wave – quickly highlights areas for improvement
- Google Lighthouse – developer toolkit for Chrome, includes an accessibility assessment module
- WebAIM’s Contrast Checker – a tool to check colour contrast
- Pat11Y – primarily aimed at IT professionals
- Accessibility Insights – Microsoft’s toolkit for testing website accessibility
- Koa11Y – a computer application that can automatically detect accessibility problems