Autism Awareness. How do we make websites accessible to people in this group?

What is autism?

The United Nations General Assembly has declared April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day. From Tothomweb we want to put our grain of sand to spread what is and above all, what we can do from web accessibility in order to make navigation easier for people of this often forgotten group.

As the Generalitat’s Health Channel literally explains, “Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) includes autism, generalized unspecified developmental disorder, atypical autism, childhood disintegrative disorder or Heller syndrome, Asperger's syndrome and Rett's syndrome, and is characterized by a markedly abnormal or deficient development of interaction and social communication, as well as the presence of an extremely restricted repertoire of activities and interests. These manifestations can vary greatly depending on the degree of development and the chronological age, but they are always present in the diagnosis of autism.

ASD can be associated with any level of intellectual ability and learning. It ranges from very subtle problems of understanding or limiting social function to very serious disabilities. In some cases an associated diagnosis of intellectual disability is made, which can range from moderate to profound. Sometimes affected people may have special abilities. They may also show behavioral disturbances, emotional disturbances, irregular food intake, sleep disturbances, and self-harming behaviors.

Currently, the international numbers of people who could be affected by one of these disorders range from 60 to more than 100 per 10,000 people with ASD and between 20 and 40 per 10,000 people with autism.

As with the general population, there are gender differences in health. It has been observed that only one in four cases of autism occurs in girls. As for Asperger's Syndrome, the impact on girls is one in eight. "

Source: Generalitat Health Channel

Rules that encourage easy reading and web accessibility for this group

In June 2018, the “Standard UNE 153101: 2018 EX Easy Reading. Guidelines and recommendations for the elaboration of documents ”that specifies the guidelines for the adaptation, creation and validation of documents in Easy Reading.

The aim of the standard is to help and guide in the creation and adaptation of quality documents in Easy Reading, documents aimed at a very wide audience that has different reading difficulties due to different circumstances.

The standard includes recommendations for both the wording of the text and the design of the document.

Also in June 2018, the International Guidelines for Accessibility to Content 2.1 were published, which are an evolution of the 2.0 and which must be complied with by public administrations and a large number of companies.

One of the great novelties of these guidelines is their emphasis on taking into account people with cognitive or learning problems, although 2.0 already mentioned issues such as the need to include icons, etc.

One of the new criteria in Guidelines 2.1 that can most clearly help easy reading is 1.4.12: “space between texts” (level AA).

Spacing can affect the way a website’s content is understood, especially for visitors with learning, comprehension, language impairments, and so on.

The goal of WCAG 2.1 with this guideline is to ensure that web visitors have the option to override the paragraph, letter, and space between words, as well as the height of the lines, so that they can adjust the text without losing functionality.

In addition to people with disabilities such as autism, this criterion also favors, for example, some visually impaired users who use custom style sheets to tailor the presentation of the text to their needs. To facilitate access to content for this and other types of users, accessibility guidelines require that they be able to:

• Adjust the height of the line to at least 1.5 times the size of the font
• Space paragraphs up to at least twice the font size
• Adjust the space between letters to at least 0.12 times the font size
• Adjust the spacing between words to at least 0.16 times the font size.

This requirement does not imply that the content must have this presentation initially, but does not preclude adjusting it to obtain it.

Essential criteria for making websites accessible to people with autism and similar disorders

We summarize below the essential issues that must be taken into account on any website in order to promote navigation and understanding of the content for the group of people with autism or similar disabilities as well as others who may also benefit. :

• Avoid background sounds and provide a mechanism to stop them
• Apply consistent navigation to the various pages of the website
• Include similar Interface Elements that allow for similar interactions
• Include understandable and frequent icons to improve usability and comprehension Avoid text images
• Proper organization of content (use of headings, lists, complex interactions in several short steps, consistent navigation, division of very long pages)
• Use simple language
• Apply Easy Reading guidelines
• Expand abbreviations and acronyms
• Use fonts like sans-serif although some people with autism prefer a serif font)
• Include labels with simple descriptions
• Provide alternative text
• Reduce the number of links and ensure that they are identified as such
• Allow to increase the size of the text and use whitespace