On the Bookshelf at O.N.Z.C.D.A™

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. . . about whether those among us who are less fortunate can have easy use of our web sites?

Do you realize that more than 100 million people worldwide have a disability? In fact, an estimated 10% of the population has a disability {although not all disabilities keep people from the web.} One cannot state that is exactly a small niche market! Oh, and before I forget, there may well be some legal reasons why we should look at making our web sites more easily accessible. However, all is not lost and here are some guidelines that may help many of us in our accessibility efforts. This is by no means a comprehensive list, just a short one to get us all thinking and perhaps start us on the way to achieving a more accessible web site.

( Note: I am unable to declare that my web site is totally impaired accessible so if you are reading this, take heart as we learn about this aspect of web design together. )

So let's take a minute or two and look at this important subject briefly. And as an added extra, as award program owners, do we really take account of those among us who are dyslexic or have sight impairments and who have created web sites for which they apply for awards? Do we ever make allowances for their impairments when they inform us of these through the application forms? Or perhaps, the question needs to be should we make allowances for such applicants? Well, the answer for me is yes - what do you answer?

Use image alt-tags and other full descriptions of content. All images should have alt tags. You should be using them anyway but if you are not, consider how someone with their images turned off in their browser might navigate your page without being able to see your image navigation buttons ( if you use them. ) Image alt tags should be fully descriptive. 'Joe Bloggs' is not descriptive; 'Joe Bloggs - The extraordinary mechanic who can repair your vehicle within seven days and will deliver your vehicle after repair to your home' gives substantially more information. Also provide alt tags to sounds and movies. All tables should have summary or longdesc tags and each frame of a frameset should have a declared name.

Limit use of animated gif files. No flashing graphics for those prone to seizures. This means slow moving gif files if you choose to include them ( 4 flashes or less per second, 25/100 speed. ). Do not use blinkers or marquees as some screen readers are unable to read them.

Use tags for their intended structural purpose ( especially tables. ) Do not use header tags to format normal text as this makes the overall page organization difficult to understand with some readers. Do not use the pre-tag to generate tables. Don't use blockquote or lists to indent - use css instead. Use strong and tags instead of bold and italics. Aural browsers ( browsers that read content ) will tonally emphasize words that have these tags. If you are using Macromedia Dreamweaver© this is easily accomplished with a find and replace action in the source code across your entire site.

Use clear and simple language for those with cognitive difficulties. You should do this anyway for optimum site usability. This means do not use words whose meaning may not be clear to your visitors. Exceptions can be made for sites with technical content.

Consider that 10% of all male viewers suffer from color blindness. Don't rely on color alone for links - make sure there is adequate contrast between colors for those who are colorblind or have other visual disabilities. Does this mean you have to design your pages in black and white? No! It does mean that you could use cascading style sheets. Style sheets will be replaced with the users style sheet attached to their browser.

Design your pages for device independence. Use onblur, onfocus and onselect instead of onmousedown, onkeyup and onclick for those unable to use a mouse.

Add methods to skip around the document. For instance, add a 'skip navigation' link at the top of your documents with an anchor to the main content. Use access keys whenever possible. And always provide the ability to skip ascii art.

Use placeholders in form fields and provide alternate forms in text format that can be printed and sent through the mail. A standard placeholder for form fields is an *. Users can insert cursor inside the field without a mouse by using the find feature of their browser and using the * as the search character. Use descriptive links ( never 'click here.' ) Links should be front loaded into any sentence. For example: Use 'SeeSite provides information on web accessibility' not 'For information on web accessibility go to SeeSite.'