Accessibility NZ
The Accessibility NZ site, (NZ for New Zealand,) is a well-constructed, simple approach to accessible design. The site clearly demonstrates a firm grasp of the fundamentals of accessibility. Looking under the hood shows a very clean, efficient use of markup with a bare minimum of necessary tags. No extra fluff here! The simple design offers a few graphic touches which help make the site interesting without adding distraction to the layout.
With such a straightforward organization and simple language, the site communicates very clearly. Well-written copy appears on every page, making the goals of the site immediately evident. We enjoyed the extra graphical touch Nic included by spelling out the site name and slogan in Braille on the header graphic. Although it doesn’t serve any particular accessibility purpose, it’s a clever and thoughtful bit of graphical interest.
Of course, we’re a critical bunch here, so it’s inevitable that we have more to say.
Although the design is nice, we didn’t really feel it had a truly compelling impact. We wished for some better typography, with a bit more effective use of separating white space, and maybe a little more spice in the font selections. All Verdana all the time is a little bit overwhelming.
We also noted that while the code is incredibly streamlined — there are a few places where it may have been streamlined too much. We’d like to have seen a bit more application of semantic elements such as blockquote and better practices in the expansion of abbreviations.
The contact and quote forms, while generally effective, displayed a few notable problems. First, we would have liked to see unique error messages. All fields simply provide error messages indicating that some required field had been left blank. Specificity is always appreciated. Second, the forms displayed some strange browser compatibility issue with the styling of form labels — a problem visible only in Firefox 2. Third, the “required” texts, while stated in plain text and very clear, were placed outside any label element. As such, they would not be read by a screen reader in forms mode.
Overall, the site is a very solid and reliable construction. It has a lot going for it; but it’s missing some of the finer details we expect from a top-graded site.
Accessibility NZ was crafted by Nic Steenhout and, following review, was deemed eligible for an Award Level of: “Notable Universal Design.” Congratulations, Nic!
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: June 26th, 2008 at 9:05 pm →
Congratz Nic.
Nic responds:
Posted: July 17th, 2008 at 1:29 am →
Hey guys! Thanks for this
Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you sooner, had a serious case of “Life” happening.
Leo responds:
Posted: July 20th, 2008 at 3:14 am →
Congrats Nic. When’s the french version coming live?
Denny Lancaster responds:
Posted: August 2nd, 2008 at 11:15 am →
I rarely comment, merely being content to read and or observe, but the last few critical critiques certainly accentuate a “general conception” among those wishing to embrace accessibility with the feeling that as a group, we are elitist snobs.
To say that objective criticisms are devoid of negative notations implys that a goup is unaminous in having found the perfect website. That will never happen.