The World Wide Web is the fastest evolving media platform in modern society. The data found on it is updated at a tremendous pace and it takes mere seconds for an internet publisher to document real world affairs as they unravel. The range and diversity of information available on the web is monumental, and practically any topic desired can be researched – whether that is in an online encyclopedia, specialist website, discussion forum, personal website or a blog.

Unfortunately web designers and publishers often neglect the needs of Internet users with disabilities, or those browsing with older or less widely used software. As a result many websites are not accessible to a large percentage of internet users, and hence their experience is hindered. This is discrimination, and even though the “Disability Discrimination Act (1999)” contains several references to accessible websites, the law is nearly impossible to enforce. Only a handful of very large companies have been pursued with legal action over their websites – this is under 0.00001% of the internet – an insignificantly small fraction.

When a designer builds a site to adhere to accessibility guidelines, he or she writes the most basic markup which will achieve the design already devised. The less markup used, the more likely the final website is to function correctly cross platform. The other advantage to using as little markup as possible is that as a result loading times will be decreased. Only essential images are used, and when they are used ‘text replacement’ is utilized so that text is inserted in place of an image if the image cannot be rendered for any reason. This means if a user has images disabled or cannot view an image, they can still read any text which was in the image.

A number of other, highly specialist methods are also employed to ensure that no matter what operating system, browser or disabilities a user may use/have their experience is not compromised and they have access to all of the data available on the website. These methods range from options to enlarge or decrease the pages font size, options for high contrast versions of the page and a version of a page especially designed to be easily interpreted by a screen reader (a screen reader is a piece of software which reads the text on a page and can output that text for a variety of different uses, such as a specialized keyboard which has a series of small holes through which the below surface is raised to form Braille).

Websites should be accessible by all people, regardless of any disabilities they may have or software they may use. This results in a consistent user experience cross platform and the elimination of discrimination. Therefore increasing the quality of your website, improving the experience of the end user, bettering you/your organizations reputation and, in the case of a company, diversifying the percentage of the public which can view your product/service online.

Strawberrysoup recognize the utmost importance of accessible web design and takes pride in building all of their client’s websites to only the strictest accessibility guidelines, as set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C are the definitive body in web standards and their guidelines are those which a website is compared to if a publisher is ever taken to court over website accessibility (www.w3c.org).

Strawberrysoup also acknowledge that accessible design needn’t mean boring design. Their expert designers can create a bespoke solution tailored to your individual needs that is exciting, eye catching, bold and accessible.

As the Internet and websites evolve, web designers and developers need to become increasingly aware of the role that accessible web design plays in the lives of end users – particularly those with visual impairments.

Guidelines

Web Accessibility is a term that is becoming increasingly prominent as the web becomes more widely used. Web developers use the guidelines set out by the W3C to help them meet the criterion outlined here.

If these guidelines are followed properly, a visual disability or even blindness will not stop an end user using the internet and browsing websites providing they use the the correct hardware or software.

Does that mean that the end users without visual problems will loose out on the interactive web experience?  Not necessarily – we should try to remember that if a website is there to provide information then it’s first job is exactly that and not to entertain. With this in mind we should build the site with the focus on providing information first.  Web developers can then work around the design and look/feel using CSS to create something visually appealing to the rest of us.  If the main focus is on aesthetics (which is the case for the vast majority of websites) there is a risk of making accessibility difficult to solve later on, so it must be highlighted throughout the design and development process.

Of course if the purpose of your website is to entertain visually, there is not much that can be done to make it accessible to everyone. Even so you can still pay attention to document structure to enable a visually impaired user to gain access.  Maybe a visually impaired user is more I.T. competent than a non-impaired friend or family member and the site is being visited on their behalf.

Who is responsible?

It is a relatively safe assumption that a graphic designer commissioned to design a website will not have been briefed on accessibility guidelines. Furthermore the client may sign off a design based purely on aesthetics.  Subsequently accessibility is considered after a design has been signed off and work has begun.  At this point dealing with accessibility can be problematic as the signed off design conflicts with guidelines, resulting in extra work needed which was not within the budget of the project.

A possible way forward could be to involve the graphic designer in the website specification process, discussing at every point what is to be expected as a user browses a web page.  At the same time the graphic designer could use the resources of the web developer to point out any issues with parts of a design.  This is not only beneficial from an accessibility point of view but from a web point of view in general.

Some clients may not have heard of such guidelines or their importance.  The Disability Rights Commission started in April 2004, changed to the Equality and Human Rights Commission in October 2007, goes into a little more detail regarding the importance of web accessibility here.

Local authorities tend to be well versed in the requirements of web accessibility and over the years Strawberrysoup have built many local authority websites. As you can imagine the accessibility criterion for this type of website is at the highest level.  Due to the success of our first local authority website (WSSEN) we have been referred several times back to other projects within the local authority.

In the case where a client is not aware of the importance of the guidelines to which we must adhere, we should make them part of the design process; walk them through the website site map before it is signed off, involve the graphic designer so he/she is also clear on what can and can’t be done.

Summary

It is easy to become focused on a small part of a website (particularly for developers) if it is large or complex or both however, it is key for at least one member of the design & development team (perhaps the project manager) to keep in mind the big picture.  Having a site with many separate parts performing very well is great, but do all these parts work well together?

All of us – graphic designers, web developers and project managers need to pay attention to these guidelines but it will never be possible to meet the needs of every individual for example, these guidelines do not take into account people with cognitive disabilities.  Having said this using a well thought out process of design, from concept to launch, can make the difference between a smooth running project and one that has many hurdles.

Chichester Park Hotel is a beautiful hotel in Chichester has recently been taken over by new management, who had decided that a great way to reach clients would be online. They had just got a new website from another design agency, and approached us to search engine optmise and market it online.

We chose to initially use sponsored advertising through Google and its related search network to drive traffic instantly after the new website was launched – which gave us time to concentrate on a search engine marketing plan for the longer term.