Improving Accessibility Online

Our Spanish member has a website with more accessible content for people with intellectual disabilities. It is important to make online information more accessible because people with intellectual disabilities have the right to get information online like other citizens.

The website of our Spanish member is now more accessible for people with intellectual disabilities and reading difficulties. FEAPS incorporates a short easy-to-read version for the articles published on their web in order to make the reading more understandable for people with intellectual disabilities. This short introduction is followed by a more complex version for advanced readers.

The website also includes other accessible settings such as a text-to-speech application with speed and volume control which takes the computer text and converts the words into audible speech. Another user-friendly setting on FEAPS’ site which is being introduced in many websites is a tool enabling users with disabilities to increase the font size of the text.

According to an article on FEAPS' site, the easy-to-read texts and the text-to-speech application will first be developed in the news section and then progressively extended to the rest of the content.

The easy-to-read standards were fostered by Inclusion Europe in order to make information easy to read and understand. They have established a series of writing rules such as the use of plain vocabulary, concrete concepts and simple sentences to transmit the basic ideas of the text. The standards are gathered in a publication called Information for all.

Improving website accessibility allows better access to information for people with intellectual disabilities. In an increasingly interconnected society where internet is one of the most important communication tools, it is only fair for people with intellectual disabilities to have access to information on an equal basis with others.