Web site Accessibility

No Web site can or should be accessible by everyone. Such a claim would be absurd and would only result in somebody complaining that they cannot access your site with a  rotatory telephone. A Web site is accessible if its targeted audience can easily access it. I do not care if there are fools out there trying to surf the Web on their tiny cellphone. This blog is targeted at serious Web developers only. Want to access this blog from a remote location? Then I would suggest using a full featured notebook computer.

Visitors referred to your site from search engines are interested in viewing a specific page. Your page is of no value to them if they cannot access it. Nor, if it is not useful to them. Hence:

1. Your server has to be working correctly.
2. The site, itself, should not be blocking access to its targeted audience.
3. The information in the search engine should be referring visitors to your site that are actually interested in your information.

Web site Accessibility

From the point of view of a human visitor, a Web page consists of the following factors.

1. Server Response – Every time a HTTP page request is made to your hosting service, or Web server, the server for your Web site can respond with many different possible responses. Are they favorable responses?
   • The visitor’s Web browser balks on Web pages that cannot be found, that cannot be displayed, or pages that time-out.Is your hosting service / Web server preventing Web pages from being displayed in a visitor’s Web browser? Timing-out is a server problem, while slow loading webpages are a design issue.
   • Web servers baulk on access violations. – Are private pages blocked from being indexed in Google?
2. Barriers to Accessibility - Web Accessibility is not just for people with disabilities. Does your site at least offer equal access to its information and functionality to your targeted audience? Can visitors actually access your webpages?
   • Site Navigation – Is the site navigation intuitive or comprehensible to human visitors? Drop down menus can really turn off visitors to your site if they get in the way or fail to work, for what ever reason. You want site navigation to be SEO, logical, easy to use, and not get in the way of the informational message of your page.
   • Hardware – Many people are still using dial-up to connect to the web. Providing features that don’t work well with slow dial-up connections, for example, make those features non-accessible to many visitors. Likewise, not everybody has speakers, headphones, or very big and wide monitors connected to their computers.
   • Vision- Visitors with vision problems should already be using Web browsers that offer text zooming. People suffering from a problem own the problem. Still, you want all text within a webpage to be designed around a limited number of reasonably sized fonts. Always avoid font size extremes. Probably your choice of contrasting colors has a bigger impact on vision than font size.
   • Sound- Unexpected sound is generally viewed as a negative factor. Unless you have a very good reason, all Web pages should be silent or at least offer a text only alternative. I am not visually impaired, so why should I waste my time struggling to watch a video on a dial-up connection? Sound is not indexed, but text is.
   • Browser Specific Barriers – Use of the latest browsers extensions eliminates all other visitors from accessing parts or all of your page. Are these features really worth it?
   • Browser Version Specific Barriers – Limiting use of your page to visitors of specific browser versions eliminates all other visitors from accessing your page. Are these features really worth it?
   • Required Installed Software Barriers, such as specific browser options, javascript and Flash. – Limiting use of your page to visitors with javascript turned on eliminates all other visitors from accessing your page. Presenting information using the latest mp4 video format will assure that many wont actually be able to access it. If you must offer video always use an older established video standard. Be sure to also offer text translations.
3. Satisfaction – How well does your webpage satisfy the needs of the visitor?
   • Does the site layout turn off visitors? – Choice of color schemes is very important. Use only approved contrasting colors that most people find acceptable. White letters on a dark background generally turns off your audience and may not even be accessible to many.
   • How well does the page satisfy the user?
   • Is it what the user was expecting to see? Provide enough detailed information to attract only those who would be interested in what you are offering.
   • Does the webpage engage the visitor? There are far too many blogs out there that entice visitors, yet totally fail to deliver on their informational promises. Does the site actually make sense, or does it merely babble on about losing pagerank, juice, or blame problems on factors that webmasters have absolutely no control over?