 In recent years, the Web has been the primary resource for a cross-section of individuals who may have difficulties linking with the outside world. According to a United Nations report, approximately 10% or 600 million people worldwide have some form of disability. That aside, the Web has become an important factor in the way we do business, learn and communicate.
Having an accessible site not only reaches a varied audience but the same components apply when making your site accessible to search engines.
The use of PDA’s, mobile phones and in-car browsers are fast becoming a prime way to access the internet. These technologies are typically used by high-income individuals. Reaching this mobile audience will require a Web site that displays and functions effectively on these types of hardware.
The download time of your site will significantly be affected by applying accessibility principles. It was reported by Ipsos Ideas that in 2006 19% of internet users in the US were still accessing the Internet by dial-up. While the number is continuing to drop due to lower costs of broadband, this represents a significant number of users who are not able to access your site quickly. The more complicated your site is the longer it will take to download. If your site takes more than ten seconds to download, you risk visitors leaving before the first page finishes loading.
By following a few simple guidelines, you can have an effective marketing tool that is available to all, search engine accessible and is compatible with multiple platforms.
Design
In “The ABC’s of SEO” (Website Magazine, May 2007) Peter Prestipino and Mike Phillips discussed the importance of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which uses less code resulting in a higher content-to-code ratio. CSS benefits accessibility mainly by separating content from presentation. The result is that search spiders are able to navigate your site quickly and easily differentiate content from code. Now you can say goodbye to tables and make simple adjustments to the layout of the site by making changes to the CSS file. By separating these two elements your site will be much easier to manage.
Use contrasting colors. Text is always easiest to read when the font text color and the background color are in higher contrast to each other. Using less contrasting colors causes eye fatigue which can make it difficult to read, especially for those with visual impairments.
Content
Make your content scan-friendly to improve your visitors’ reading experience. Ensure that your text is easy to read by applying these simple techniques from Key Relevance:
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Bullets and subheadings. This technique helps to grab the reader’s attention by breaking up the page and making text scannable. Keeping the content concise and using headings which are in context with the corresponding text also helps the reader find the information that they’re looking for.
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Write succinct paragraphs. Whitespace is a key component between paragraphs which helps to give the site a clean look. Breaking up long paragraphs into shorter sections also makes it easier for the viewer to read.
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Bold important points. Many visitors want to be able to glance at your page and find the most important points. Help your readers by bolding or highlighting the text to draw their eye.
Headings – h1, h2 and h3 tags
Header tags provide site optimizers with a means to provide keywords which are descriptive and indicate to search engines and users the importance of a page section. By consistently including headings, it breaks up the content making it easier for users to read and provides clues to search engines about the page’s structure and content.
Alt and Title Attributes
ALT and TITLE attributes are used to provide valuable information to your visitors such as descriptions of images and links within your pages. The ALT attribute is an alternative text description for images - e.g. if the image is not able to display, or when you hover over the image, the alt text will appear. In Lyris’ Hot Banana, ALT tags are required when adding images into the Digital Asset Manager so you can be assured that you are always following accessibility best practices. The TITLE attribute is also important to describe links, tables, table rows and structural HTML elements. These attributes may be searched by popular search engines and enhance the browsing experience of visitors with disabilities.
Other Considerations
Users can experience difficulties on the Web even if they don’t have disabilities. Not everyone has the latest version of Internet Explorer. Therefore, you want to ensure that your site is backwards compatible so you’re not leaving out yet another crucial part of your audience.
Flash is a great component to the look of your site but just like browser compatibility some users may not have a Flash plug-in available to view your site. Sitepoint’s Trenton Moss suggests that if you rely on Flash or JavaScript, make sure that you provide an alternative to view your site; otherwise you’re leaving out numerous visitors from accessing your site. There are many reasons why Web users may not have access to your images or Flash. In many cases users with slow internet connections turn images off for quicker download times.
Oftentimes Flash Web sites have significantly longer download times than HTML sites so many users lose patience and don’t wait to view the content. Always provide an alternative to skip the intro or to turn off Flash to avoid losing potential customers. Although JavaScript may be considered common in most circles, it is actually unsupported by about 4% of Web users, usually because they have turned off JavaScript completely to avoid pop up ads or simply because their browsers do not support it.
In many countries the average age of the population is also increasing and many more seniors are going online daily. This further reinforces the need to apply accessibility guidelines since there is a greater concern about vision and hearing loss as well as a decline in memory and mobility.
Accessibility and Legal Requirements
Depending on the Web site, accessibility can be a legal requirement. Most often this applies to government sites but many others are also included. For more information about the requirements in your country, refer to the W3C Policies Relating to Web Accessibility [http://www.w3.org/WAI/Policy/], and Section 508 in the US [http://www.section508.gov/], for regulations and guidelines.
There’s no doubt Web accessibility is an important factor in how the Web is used on a daily basis. Simple techniques can be applied to your design, images and content and will greatly enhance the user experience. You can also reach a wider audience by being cross browser compatible while being ready for the next phase on the web.
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About the Author
Susan Bell is a training specialist at Lyris She is responsible for creating and delivering training and materials for Lyris HQ Landing Pages. She also regularly delivers training classes on Web Analytics and Search Marketing Fundamentals.
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