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Website Accessibility

Are visitors having problems with your site?

An accessible site is easily approached, understood, and useable for all.

There are many things that are done to make a site accessible. There are also many things that are not done to make a site accessible. Sometimes, there has to be a compromise to achieve a goal and still maintain accessibility.

Sophistication

The main reason that accessibility has become an important issue is that companies want their Web site to appear more sophisticated than the competition. I believe there are three ingredients in sophistication, content, usability, and design. Many companies focus on one of these aspects (usually design), but I focus on all three.

Compatibility

Not all browsers are created equal. Check your work on as many machines as you can. It's also wise to consider that some people don't allow JavaScript, cookies, images, or Flash, and some web surfers use text readers. A great example of a compatibility problem is my accessibility budget tool. If you don't have JavaScript enabled, the tool doesn't work.

Spiderablility (is that really a word?)

Search engine spiders have an easier time indexing your pages when the links are standard html text. Text links also can improve your positioning for searched phrases. If all the text in your site is within a graphic or Flash movie, most search engines won't "see" it.

Download speed

While certain types of sites can get away with more innovative technology, most commercial sites should not go too overboard. If you do business internationally, or with customers who are anywhere but a city, this is an issue. Bandwidth costs. Save yourself and visitors money by keeping downloads to a minimum.

Taking over one's browser

If your site takes away the ability for a visitor to utilize certain browser functions, you will lose more than you will gain. No-no's include: removing tool bars, not allowing text resize, and redirects that do not allow for the "back" function. Many visitors hate that type of thing as much as they hate spam in their email.