design accessible web sites

[...]... Universal Design Occasionally, you’ll find developers who claim that they don’t need to worry about accessibility practices because they practice “Universal Design Universal design is a general method of designing interfaces that are usable by everyone The ideas behind universal design are good ones but they don’t necessarily do enough to make our sites accessible Sometimes proponents of universal design. .. designed (inaccessible) web sites. 3 People with visual impairments aren’t the only ones who have problems with usability When a site doesn’t give multiple descriptions for its content or provide easy to use navigation, it also causes less obvious usability problems for users without disabilities Accessible design serves the needs of people with disabilities, but it’s more than that: it makes your sites. .. to build accessible content Some, like legal requirements, aren’t terribly pleasant to think about Others, like opening your sites to new markets and increasing your skill set are more exciting to pursue By the end of this chapter, you will be able to understand what your reasons for developing accessible web content are With that in mind, lets look at some benefits of understanding accessible web development... your web development practices In other words, if you have anything to do with building web sites, there’s something here for you You could be a project manager, a designer, a developer, an author, or an artist (Take a look at Making a Team Effort, on page 37 to see how different people fit into the accessibility process) I’ve written information that will be useful for anyone who wants to produce accessible. .. ripping apart good visual design Great visual design is an important element of the web and I welcome every designer who wants to add accessibility to their toolbox to come along—there’s plenty of information here for you as well Finally, I’m not going to focus primarily on accessibility guidelines I don’t think this is a useful route for understanding the principles that underlie web accessibility, so... you’ll need to do to design accessible sites Of course, you’ll need to understand how to apply them That’s good, because we’re just getting started 17 Part I Laying the Foundation Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963.4.16 Chapter 1 Why Be Accessible? We’re going to spend a few hundred pages learning about web accessibility and... disabilities, but only if such technologies are designed from the beginning so that everyone can use them Given the explosive growth in the use of the World Wide Web for publishing, electronic commerce, lifelong learning and the delivery of government services, it is vital that the Web be accessible to everyone William Jefferson Clinton, Statement of Support for the Web Accessibility Initiative Preface It... the Right Thing to Do While the web was originally designed for scientific communication, it was rapidly adopted as a new form of publishing with the promise to be wide-reaching and open to everyone As web developers, we haven’t always lived up to this promise, however As web technologies grew in complexity, many features appeared that threatened the openness of the web In some cases, certain browsers... be expecting our sites to cater to their needs and they represent a large enough market that it would be unwise to disappoint them The market for accessible web content and services is out there and growing These are our potential readers and customers to the tune of 100 billion dollars a year—Why would we choose to ignore them? 20 A CCESSIBLE S ITES ARE M ORE U SABLE 1.3 Accessible Sites are More Usable... real difference in user experience Later that evening, I got curious about my web sites seeing how much difference something as simple as a different keyboard could make, how would my sites behave for users with screen readers instead of monitors and keyboards but not mice? It wasn’t pretty I knew that I needed to design my sites differently, but what exactly did I need to do? It turns out that accessibility . developing accessible web con- tent are. With that in mind, lets look at some benefits of understanding accessible web development. 1.1 It’s the Right Thing t o Do While the web was originally designed. Be Accessible? , on page 19. After that, it’s down to business. I also won’t be ri pping apart good visual design. Great visual design is an important element of the web and I welcome every designer. for anyone who wants to pr oduce accessible web sites. You migh t want to do this because you believe it’s the right thing to do, because you know it’ll make your sites more portable to different platforms,