Web Design: Accessibility for Everyone.
Web sites are visited by significant numbers of people with varying disabilities. Make sure your site can work with lower resolutions and screen magnifiers. Common accessibility errors include:
- Lack of appropriate print layout preventing people with focal disabilities including some long-sighted people from being able to print your web page and take it outside in the sun or put it under a bright light where they can see it without excessive eye-strain.
- Lack of "ALT" attribute in image elements virtually excluding blind and some visually impaired people from experiencing some of the impact and implication of the image.
- Lack of character based separation of links deployed in toolbars sidebars and adjacent images which tends to confuse brail/aural readers as to where one link starts and another ends.
- The same link tag applied to two different URLs which is very confusing when taken from a brail/aural reader.
- Lack of "SUMMARY" attribute in a table to explain table function and content when being assessed for access by a user depending on a brail/aural reader.
- Similar grey scale in colours appearing in background and text, making the text either invisible or unreadable to some colour blindness sufferers.
Documentation and Testing of Web Design Accessibility
One of the best accessibility standards is the World Wide Web Consortium's
WCAG 1.0 WAI-AAA, and you can find the specification and a lot of good advice @:
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ with testing provided @:
http://webxact.watchfire.com/
Economics of Web Design Accessibility.
If the market represented by people with disabilities is not substantial enough to get your attention, consider this: All search engine spiders are not only blind, but brainless. If a profoundly deaf and blind person cannot make sense of your site, don't expect to get the search rankings applicable to your page. Chances are the search engine spider was even more bamboozled and simply dropped your site. This could potentially "cut off your air supply" by cutting your site off from the largest single market channel anywhere in the world.
