Accessible Web Page Design:
Are BODY BACKGROUNDs Accessible?
Select this link if you have trouble reading this page because of the background image.
The <BODY BACKGROUND> Feature.
Example 1.
The BACKGROUND element of the BODY tag allows a page designer to choose a picture, colour or texture to be displayed "behind the text" on the client's graphical browser. This gives the designer some control over the look and feel of their page. In the past, only the end-user had control over the look and feel of a Web page, because the end-user chose their preferred display parameters from those available to their particular browser.
As you may or may not be able to see, I have chosen a VERY bad example for a background graphic, using the <BODY BACKGROUND="filename.gif"> tag. In the first place, the BACKGROUND construct is not widely supported (yet) by browsers other than Netscape Navigator. In the second place, the choice of background makes the standard text difficult to read. (Strangely enough, this background actually looks pretty good on most 256-colour LCD laptop displays -- go figure!)
Almost all textured background choices are bad. This is a personal opinion, but I have seen very few "background" graphics that do not make reading a page more difficult.
View a slightly better BACKGROUND example.
Using the <FONT> Tag.
When HTML was conceived it was a "platform independent" markup language. The page designer was not intended to have much control of how information appeared on an end-user's display. The developer could suggest that the client software (the browser) change the characteristics of text that was marked with HTML tags (like BOLD or ITALIC), but how, or if, that enhancement was shown depended entirely on the browser.
HTML has evolved to the point where the developer appears to have much more control of how text is displayed on some browsers. Use of the <FONT> tag allows the designer to specify character size and colour (and other attributes too).
Remember: you, the page designer, do not have ultimate control the font types, sizes or colours that the end user (your client) sees. Most graphical browsers allow the end-user to over-ride your fonts and colours and choose colours and fonts that are more personally pleasing. Does your page survive this test?
One site I visited used the <FONT> tag to double the size of the first letter of each word in a title: at least one screen-reader for MS-Windows couldn't handle this. If you could see the screen, you could read the line, but the screen-reader software only read the unenlarged text. Thus, a sentence like:
The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over The Fence
would be read as
he uick rown ox umped ver he ence
by the screen-reader.
Finding your way.
Making Photographs and Graphics Accessible.
Making Bullets and Numbered Lists Accessible.
Last updated: July 20, 1997