accessible web design and web standards

standards matter,
accessible website design matters

What differentiates the amateur from the professional agency is quite simply the recognition of the importance of standards. How your website is built makes a real difference, here are some reasons why...

A badly constructed website will:

• not display or function correctly on different web browsers
• not meet accessibility standards (see below)
• be less visible to search engines
• be more prone to errors
• be harder to update
• potentially lose you customers and money!

What are accessibility standards?

Accessible website design is all about inclusion. Making the information and services on your website accessible to people of differing abilities and avoiding placing visual, or technical, barriers on your site that might obstruct its use.

This is not only sensible business practice but it is also now a requirement of UK law.

What are the factors that can help make a website more accessible?

Here are just a few.

• clear consistent design and navigation
• good contrast of text colour against the background
• appropriate alternate text descriptions for pictures
• resizable text
• avoiding placing text in images which could make it inaccessible
• correctly constructed link text
• ability to use keyboard controls instead of a mouse to operate the website functionality
• address for colour-blindness
• short-cut key combinations

Why web standards?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop web standards. Guidelines produced by the W3C enable web developers to work to industry best practice, ensuring consistent delivery of quality.

whiteinteractive endeavours to develop all websites to high levels of web standards as set out by the W3C.