And access for all

WE'VE LEARNED TO embrace diversity in race, culture, and gender; we're finally turning the corner on sexual preference. Yet physical impairment, age, and mental illness are still considered acceptable reasons to exclude prospective employees or customers.

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Business lobbies rail against forced accommodation; they complain about cost, but the real motivator is fear. They're afraid that a blind or deaf person might make other workers uncomfortable. They worry that giving a quiet office to a worker with an attention or anxiety disorder will make others resentful. The job market is loaded with smart people who want to work but are passed up as too old or too much bother by recruiters and employers. What a waste.

When shopping for IT talent, brush aside knee-jerk reactions to candidates' limitations. Instead of imagining how difficult accommodation will be, show the candidate his or her work area and ask for suggestions. A little person will show you how a portable stepstool gives them a near-normal reach. Someone suffering fatigue from disease, medication, or age might need to telecommute or take a short in-office nap each afternoon to stay sharp.

Most workers don't need or expect accommodation, but they'll be relieved to see that if they ever do, their employer will see to it.

Likewise, we developers can unwittingly make Web content and software impassible for those who can't make full use of a keyboard, monitor, and mouse.

Designers of software and Web content should consider users with vision, hearing, or motion impairment. Whole books have been written on the subject, but here are some of the design guidelines I follow: If you use a toolbar with uncaptioned icons, make sure the same functions are available on a pull-down menu. Pair every audio alert with a visual indicator.

If you use animation or video, employ captions and make text transcripts describing relevant visuals available. A button or hyperlink that switches to a high-contrast, text-only interface should be near the top left of the screen -- that way, it will be one of the first items a text-to-speech or Braille translator picks up.

Tear-off tool windows and dockable toolbars allow users to move controls out of weak spots in their visual fields. Never use absolute font sizes or visual element dimensions within a Web page. Use relative measures in style sheets so users can pick a larger default font and resize the browser window. Assign keyboard accelerators (for example, Alt+A) to all user interface controls and use a left-to-right, top-to-bottom tab order (accelerators interface to voice recognition and other macro-driven solutions). Applying an intuitive tab order eases the use of breath, chin, and finger controllers.

You'll find that a little accommodation goes a long way. Grateful employees and customers will spread the word about your respect and consideration.