Accessible Web Design
Page 2 of 5
- What Is Accessible Web Design? |
- Accessibility & Disabled Visitors
- Accessibility & The Law |
- Accessibility Makes Commercial Sense |
- Do Out of the Trees Make Accessible Web Sites? |
Printer Friendly Version
PDF Version (83 kb)
Accessibility & Disabled Visitors
One important group to benefit from accessible design is the disabled community. According to a recent Harris poll, nearly half of all people in the US with disabilities report that the Internet has significantly improved their quality of life. Unfortunately, people with disabilies can still find many web sites difficult or even impossible to use simply because of the way they have been designed — even though most accessibility solutions are quite easy to implement.
Good web design takes into account the five main types of disabilities that affect Internet usage:
- Visual impairments, which affect over one million people in the UK, such as poor eyesight, blindness and colour-blindness;
- Hearing impairments;
- Mobility impairments, such as the inability to use hands because of arthritis and tremors;
- Cognitive impairments, such as dyslexia (which affects about 4% of the population) and learning difficulties;
- Seizure disorders, such as epilepsy, which can be triggered by flashing animations.
Sadly companies cannot always justify making their web sites accessible for purely altruistic reasons, so you may want to consider the following points.
