Accessibility and Usability

Why bother ...

Do you want to turn people away from your site? No? In that case, they should be able to view your site in their choice of browser.

Accessibility

Badly made websites may look perfect whilst being inaccessible to people with visual or other disabilities. Their special browsers may not be able to render the poor code properly and the visitor has to give up and go elsewhere. Yet it costs nothing to incorporate accessibility into a web site.

Not only is it bad business sense to exclude disabled persons, it is a legal obligation in the UK to make goods and services accessible to disabled people. This doesn't just mean wheelchair ramps; it also encompasses services such as websites.

Organisations that offer goods and services on the Web already have a legal duty to make their sites accessible… we shall be vigorous in the use of our enforcement powers; these range from “namedparty” Formal Investigations which can lead to sanctions against the owners of inaccessible websites, to the provision of support for test cases being brought by individual disabled people.
DRC Formal Investigation report: web accessibility

Usability

A usable web site is one that the visitor can interact with easily. It is accessible, visually appealing, consistent, clear, navigable and forgiving of user blunders.

If visitors don't find your site usable, they leave and go to another one they like better.

Importance of testing

Visitors will read your pages using many different types of browser: old, new, graphical, non-graphical. Not all of these browsers can handle the latest technology. Not everyone has a monitor like the one used to create your website.

All browsers have quirks and inconsistencies, and even the best coders can make mistakes - so it is best practice to test, test, and test again in your likely audience's browsers.

Check our code… XHTML, CSS, Section 508 and speed