Is Your Site Accessible?

What does that mean?  Accessible?  Yes, anyone can load my website; it’s located on the World Wide Web!

What “Accessible” means in this case is that people with visual, auditory, or physical disabilities can still get information from your site.

According to a report by the Danish Center for Accessibility, as many as 25% of the world’s Internet users have some sort of visual, auditory or mobility disability.

Source: An Idiots Guide To Accessible Web Design

The article goes on to discuss “WAVE,” a service that will rate a web page on how accessible it is:

WAVE accessibility screenshot of krisbunda.com

So whether you want to want your site accessible because of legal reasons, business reasons, or just because you want it accessible, then make sure your designer is following accessibility guidelines.

In closing, another quote from the “Idiot’s Guide” article by Sandy Butler:

If you really want to see firsthand how much a difference you can make in the lives of disabled people by designing Web sites that are accessible, spend a few hours sitting next to a blind or physically challenged user.

Once you witness for yourself how difficult the Internet can be when designers ignore 25% of the Internet user population, you’ll keep accessibility top-of-mind whenever you sit down to design.