Accessibility
What is Accessibility and why should I be interested in it?
Accessibility is all sorts of things but essentially it is good coding and good design which means whatever browser your viewers are using and whatever their technical ability, they will be able to view your site and get the information they need.
The web is a wonderful place now, full of colour, video, audio, all sorts. But at the end of the day you need to be able to get information from your website and if users are unable to read your contact details because their computer doesn’t do java, then you’ve lost custom.
Below are just a few of the guidelines I follow to give you an idea of the issues borne in mind when I code a website:
- I aim to code my pages to XHTML 1.0 strict. I may occasionally have elements that don’t conform to this standard, but basically the pages will conform.
- Links on pages should all be written to make sense in context, e.g. when read by a screen reader. So none of the “click here” type link that you used to see on the web a lot.
- Similarly all links to external sites will open in the same window unless there is a specific and very good reason why they should open in a separate window. Multiple windows can confuse users who are using screen readers, for example.
- Links to downloadable documents are clearly marked as such and with the size of the document. There is nothing worse than clicking on a link thinking it is going to open a new page for you, only to discover you are downloading a huge Word file. However if you want that file and you are happy to wait for the download, that’s fine.
- All images in a site will have “alt” tags, a little tag that describes that image to screen readers and also to search engines, helping with your SEO (search engine optimization – more jargon!).
- And finally, if all styles, images and javascript are turned off, then viewers should still be able to read and understand your site perfectly.
I hope that’s given you some idea of the thought that goes into writing a site. It’s not just the design and content, although of course they are extremely important too! And web standards are changing all the time so there is always something to keep up with.
If you are very keen, you can read more about accessibilility at Wikipedia.
