Accessites.org
The Art of Accessibility

Many articles and tutorials on developing an accessible site do tend to assume that you have the luxury of starting with a blank sheet. However, in practice, many developers are faced with large legacy sites that are in dire need of an accessibility makeover. They may not even be able to develop a replacement site behind the scenes but, instead, have to deal with improving accessibility levels on the existing site that is being actively used.

Continue reading “5 Steps To Reworking A Legacy Site” »

You know why web accessibility makes sense and understand the benefits. Because of this you’ve made your web site so it’s valid and compliant with current web standards. You’ve tried your best to use semantic mark-up and all that which gets poured into the very foundation of a quality web site. You’re pretty sure you’ve removed the barriers to accessibility and that any functionality is a progressive enhancement. But you’re human, and you know in your heart, deep down inside, that you’re not infallible. So what do you do? How do you launch your site knowing with absolute confidence you’ve done a good job?

Continue reading “Confirming a Web Site’s Accessibility” »

The dividing line between web accessibility and web usability is often blurred and difficult to distinguish. Whilst there is no doubt that the two topics do overlap to a significant degree, it is important to differentiate between them. Unlike web accessibility which impacts directly upon disabled users, web usability affects all users, and can be defined as a measure of how easy it is for a generic site visitor to carry out a task such as finding a given piece of information or buying a certain product. However, there are accessibility benefits to be gained from applying web usability principles to your designs. So let’s take a few simply usability concepts, look at why they are important and see what effect they may have on overall accessibility.

Continue reading “Web Usability” »

Usability and accessibly must be passive to be truly successful. No requirements, no rules, no instructions.

In 1993, when I first started going on the web, I recall almost never being able to visit a web site without having to update a browser plugin or get some new funky thing. It was a real pain because what should have been a quick page load and content perusal ended up being a long process of downloading some update (on dial-up at the time), installation, re-booting, etc. By the time I got everything needed to visit the site in question, I had forgotten why I was checking it out in the first place. I remember that the web was quite aggravating in the ‘90s.

Continue reading “Requirements? That’s Sooo ‘90s” »