Accessibility and security

Accessibility

Tim Berners-Lee said: "the power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect" (In W3C, n.d.). Accessibility is an important consideration in creating websites, since it is at the heart of the ethos of the web. Accessibility issues apply to users with a wide range of disabilities, as well as older users whose abilities may be affected by aging (W3C, 2008). Accessibility for older members is a key concern for The History Society, since a large proportion of our current members are older.

Current features

Currently, our website uses alternative text for all images, in order to make the site more accessible for people using screen readers and text only browsers (Felke-Morris, 2011, p. 198), as well as ensuring that the font sizes are large enough to be visible to elderly and sight impaired members (Nielsen & Loranger, 2006, p. 221).

Future upgrades

In future, we aim to improve the accessibility of our site by using relative font sizes, as well as adding an option for users to change font size and colour (Nielsen & Loranger, 2006, p. 227). This will allow users more control over how the website appears, and improve legibility for sight impaired users. This may, however, change the default appearance of text on some browsers, and the resize button will increase interface complexity of the website (Nielsen & Loranger, 2006, p. 227). However, we believe it is worth implementing due to the nature of our audience.

Security

Currently we do not accept membership payments directly over the web, but we recognise that this can be more convenient for users, as well as providing cost efficiencies for the society (Felke-Morris, 2011, p. 470). We aim to develop such a feature in the near future. However, we recognise that some users may see this as risky, and therefore we intend to implement security measures to allay those fears and protect user information.

Future upgrades

In future, we aim to implement SSL encryption in order to provide security for the information users input into our website. Encryption means that data transmitted over the internet is unreadable to anyone without the right 'key', and helps protect sensitive information from being stolen (Guenther, 2003, pp. 64–65). After implementation, we will be able to reassure our users of the security of information they submit to us, either through purchasing membership online or in our membership enquiries form. SSL also uses digital certificates to authenticate the website and the user (Felke-Morris, 2011, p. 477).

References

• Felke-Morris, T. (2011). Web development and design foundations with XHTML (5th ed.). Boston: Addison-Wesley.
• Guenther, K. (2003). Protecting your web site, protecting your users. Online, May/June, 63–66.
• Nielsen, J., & Loranger, H. (2006). Prioritizing Web usability. Voices Series. New Riders.
• W3C. (2008). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
• W3C. (n.d.). Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - home page. Retrieved May 28, 2012, from http://www.w3.org/WAI/