Accessibility expert’s ideas to make JetBlue website more accessible

Error message

Deprecated function: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is deprecated in include_once() (line 14 of /home/mediacc/public_html/themes/engines/phptemplate/phptemplate.engine).
Friday, 12 August 2011 14:38pm

Derek Featherstone, accessibility expert and founder of Further Ahead, has posted an article outlining some of the technical changes that the USA’s JetBlue Airways could implement to make its website more accessible.

The article was inspired by the lawsuit filed in 2010 against JetBlue for the inaccessibility of its website. The outcome of the case against JetBlue Airways last week effectively left the complainants with no recourse in US state or federal courts.

In Featherstone’s article, ‘Curing the jetBlues’, he outlines five areas for improvement on the JetBlue website:

  1. The navigation bar uses images and graphic text without ALT text. This makes the navigation bar inaccessible to screen reader users, and may hinder screen magnifier users, or users who increase the text size within their web browser.
  2. Although some images have ALT text, it is often inappropriate, meaning screen reader users may not be able to determine where the link will take them.
  3. Tables are used for layout, making it difficult for screen reader users to easily and cleanly navigate around the page.
  4. Inappropriate heading structure means that screen reader users may find it difficult or impossible to navigate the webpage by heading structure.
  5. Not all elements in the JetBlue website can be accessed by a keyboard, making it difficult if not impossible for people who rely on keyboard access to buy a ticket on the JetBlue website.

All these accessibility barriers could be fixed simply by good design and development practices. For instance, instead of using only images for menu items, ensure the menu item is in text even if paired with graphical images. Make sure ALT text is appropriate. Use CSS rather than tables for layout. Use appropriate mark-up to ensure the heading structure can be identified by a screen reader.

If you are building a website, don’t forget to follow the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and always test your website with a diverse range of users, with and without disabilities and who use different assistive technologies.


Top of page