Website Accessibility

Make sure every visitor can read your Web Site, even if they can't see it.

There are visitors to your website who are visually impaired. They cannot see your awe inspiring flash introduction, they cannot appreciate your expensive photography and graphics and they will not be impressed by your clever use of javascript. Yet these visitors hold the future of your site in their hands, because these are the search engines.

Accessibility should be at the core of your site, not tacked on the end.

Too often these and their flesh and blood disabled counterparts are not considered when commissioning a website, after all the web is a visual medium, it's about graphics and style and imagery, not disability web site access issues, right? At Appropriate Solutions we see things differently, we like to view a website from the inside out, starting with content, it's organisation, presentation and accessibility.

Standards exist by which we can be measured.

At Appropriate Solutions we build sites the hard way, we build sites that comply with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. They also comply with PAS 78, a standard for disability access, as well as being cross browser compatible. This means they should look good in any of the current browsers (Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.5, Opera 9), and still be accessible in older browsers.

Accessibility is not just for the impaired.

A general rule of thumb is that good accessibility will produce good usability, and as poor usability (the ability to achieve your goals easily on a web site) is the most often cited reason for leaving a web site, investment in all your visitors, sited and not will pay dividends.

Contact Appropriate Solutions now to find out what improving your accessibility and usability could do for your web site.

Disability Web Site Access

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Accessibility is just not worth the effort.

Making my site accessible is just too much work, and all my expensive animations won't work, and anyway hardly any of my visitors are disabled so why bother?

Well for several reasons I suppose. The first one for me is that it allows me to sleep at night with a clear conscience as I know I have done my job right. But more importantly for my clients it give distinct business advantages.

Dutch Accessibility Law

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Holland takes a step toward accessibility

As from 1st September 2006, all web sites produced for the Dutch central Government will have to meet strict guidelines on accessibility. This follows in the wake of the Swedish ruling on such Government sites, but in fact is both more strict and more specific.

Hopefully this will have a ripple effect with both regional Government and companies tendering for Government contracts taking the opportunity to examine their own websites. In addition these rules together with those from Sweden and other EU countries will start to form the basis for a Europe wide accessibility initiative.

If you're not sure how your web site measures up to access and W3C standards, why not contact Appropriate Solutions and find out.