Professional Website Design by TDTSolutions - Who's Next?
Located in Charlottetown, PEI
Why Accessible, Valid & Strict Web Design?
I guess the answer to this question is "Why Not?".
I know you shouldn't answer a question with a question but in this case I cannot think of any reason why a web designer shouldn't do all that he/she can to make their client's web site more accessible and of course without errors.
Why is having your website accessible so important?
The quote at the bottom of this page by Tim Berners-Lee really says it all. When you have your website built ask yourself one serious question. Am I building this website so it looks good on my computer or should I care what it might look like on someone else's computer? If the answer to that question is - "Your own computer", then you just restricted your site to a small demographic where your chances of success of building traffic, um.. I mean repeat traffic is next to none. Anyone can get a lot of traffic, but do they bookmark your site and come back to it later on?
For example - If your building a website to look good for IE 7, Windows XP with a screen resolution of 1024X768 using 32bit colour scheme without Web Safe colours then chances are you will have a pretty good website. What about the Mac users using Safari, or Firefox or even those who don't know how to change their screen resolution from 800X600? Does the text scale properly for screen magnifiers? Are you using a lot of flash that cannot be read by a screen reader? Is there high contrast from your foreground and background so reading text is easy? Does any text embedded into graphics have a high degree of contrast? Are you underlining text that isn't actually a link? Is the site large in nature and cause dial-up users greif when trying to view your pages? These are only a few considerations that go into making a website accessible.
By having an accessible website you can increase you traffic and viewer base. Your site becomes more readable and more usable which in turn gives you more opportunity with business and repeat traffic. I have a sneaking suspicion that having an accessible website will also help improve your chances with Search Engines, getting placed higher and viewed more frequently.
The article posted by W3C.org on "Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review" is a great article that goes into detail about the different types of users on how they navigate, interact and read websites. From the young individual to the older person who over time has developed sight issues and other ailments which interfere with their internet usage. Studies that show the amount of internet usage between different age groups and how particular diseases affect the normal user over time. From how one uses the mouse to natural degenerative effects the human eye has when trying to process text and colour.
TDTSolutions does not pretend to be an expert in the subject, but we are making every effort to accommodate all aspects of accessible web design and making all our pages valid, free of errors. When you have your house built, you would expect the carpenter to build it by the blueprints you provide and not cut corners. Make sure your web designer does the same because in the long run, having an accessible website means your already ahead of the competition who your trying to find that "edge" over.
Bottom line is, increase your traffic and entertain to a larger demographic. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has difficulty viewing the web, because someday you just might be that person.
Questions? We would be more than happy to answer them.. contact TDTSolutions today!