Simply put, its about making your website more accessible to more people – this usually refers to people who use some sort of assitance when surfing, such as a screen reader, or can't easily use a mouse.
"Refers to hardware and software technologies that help visually or physically impaired people to use the computer. For example, the Accessibility Options control panel in Windows provides keyboard, mouse and screen options for people who have difficulty typing or seeing the screen. "
Definition from Answers.com
Importance of accessibility
- Marketing
- Legal obligation
- Easy
- Search engine optimisation
If people can't use your website, then you may have lost them as a customer, people who need to use some sort of assistance to surf the web is going to increase as people get older, and regular web users find it harder to use mice. By making a few simple changes often a website can be significantly more accessible.
In the same way that all new public buildings should have facilities for disabled access, websites fall under the same legal obligation, in the UK it is still a very grey area, but recently in the US legislation is now in place to ensure that websites are suitably accessible.
It is actually quite easy to create a website that is accessible, by a small amount of training the people who create the content, and a good understanding when designing the initial framework websites generally lend themselves to being accessible.
If a website is accessible, it will also be easier for a search engine to go through it and index the site properly, giving you the chance to appear high in the listings.
A few quick pointers:
- Ensure text size is scalable, and of a reasonable size to start with
- Use CSS instead of Tables where possible – do not use the font tag.
- When using images, ensure the page works without being able to see these images.
- Avoid javascript menus or flash for navigation, use simple HTML where possible
- Write links without click here
Opinions:
I have frequently come across websites where they are proud to be AAA accessible, nothing on their website conflicts with any accessibility recommendation, unfortunately these sites are so painfully unattractive, often with no images, and no formatting – in fact to many these websites are inaccessible as people are all different. Some dyslexic people prefer a website to have narrow columns, with a coloured background with good pictures, most people prefer a sans serif font, and some people find alternative formats (such as flash video) to be the preferred method.
Other factors frequently not taken into account include reading ability – consider your audience.
Where accessibility is important, alt tags should not be used for “key word stuffing”
More coming soon!
Related Links
