Why should I care about accessibility?
It is easy to think that you might not have to be concerned about the accessibility of your website, however accessibility is a key issue at present and more categories of user may be affected than you at first think. The following are examples of types of users who might be affected by the accessibility (or inaccessibility) of a site:
visually impaired users (blind, partially sighted, colour blind)- users with impaired mobility
- those using old versions of browsers
- users with slow internet connections
- mobile phone and PDA users
- search engines
The Web Accessibility Initiative (http://www.w3.org/WAI/) offers a set of guidelines to help make a website as accessible as possible. We bear the guidelines in mind while designing a site and carefully check against them towards the end of the design process to ensure accessibility.
A related area is website usability. It is essential that websites are as user-friendly as possible. Users must be able to find the information they are looking for, or carry out the desired actions, quickly and easily. If a user has to think too hard about how to use a site, they will give up and try a different one. Our aim is to provide an interface that is easy to use, as well as attractive, and a structure that is painless to find your way around.
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