Web designers are often told that their pages should be made “accessible”, but to many, that just means testing on a few extra browsers and ensuring that the type is readable. These are, without a doubt, important concerns, but accessibility is about much more than that. It’s about opening up your site to all users, including those with vision and/or hearing impairments. After all, isn’t that what the web was all about in the first place — communicating with anyone, anywhere?

A common misconception about accessibility is that it will make your design bland or overly simplistic. However, in most cases, you can have a rich, full-featured design that also meets accessibility guidelines. Still, there’s no question that a complete accessibility overhaul is a major undertaking for some websites. If you’re not ready to dive in and do everything now, consider taking small some steps towards a more accessible design.

Accessible sites can still look great, like this one from the designers at tinderhouse.com.

Decide which guidelines to follow. Standards have been set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium in the form of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The federal government’s Section 508 standards, which govern the design of all federal websites, are based on the WCAG, as are the standards set forth by companies such as Microsoft. Unless you are catering to one of these specialty groups, simply use the WCAG guidelines. Print them out and keep them handy whenever you work on a site. You can find them here, and yes, that page says 1999. See how long you’ve been neglecting the guidelines!

Section508.gov details the design requirements for federal agency websites.

Determine your priorities and understand your needs. Guidelines are divided into three groups or priority levels: the ones you must follow to be considered accessible, the ones you should follow, and those you may follow. Within each group, you’ll find checkpoints, such as “For data tables, identify row and column headers.” Mark up your printed guidelines. Highlighting all of the level 1 checkpoints but only the level 2 and 3 checkpoints that make sense for your site and audience. Even if you don’t know how to achieve them yet, make a note of them.

Check back tomorrow for more advice on making your website accessible.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 12:56 pm and is filed under RESOURCES, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.