Design vs Art Blog

Why should you make your website accessible for the impaired people? You’ve probably heard a lot of bla-bla already, like that you are gonna get a place in heaven if you make your site accessible. But that’s not the only advantage of it.

"all users will get the benefits of a well designed website…"
 

Designing for the impaired people is designing for everybody, that means that all users will get the benefits of a well designed website. For example, using good color contrasts will be thanked by everybody’s eyes and making hyperlinks that make sense will give more context to everybody. A better site means more visits, more visits means more money (usually).

I will take the opportunity to show you the Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web Site from the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, W3C. This quick tips are also available for free as reference cards. I will show you examples to this tips in the next weeks.

1. Images & animations: Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
2. Image maps. Use the client-side map and text for hotspots.
3. Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
4. Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here."
5. Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
6. Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
7. Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
8. Frames. Use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
9. Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
10. Check your work. Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG

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