Accessible Web Design
Page 4 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? |
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Accessibility Makes Commercial Sense
Disabled people are potential customers too. In the UK, 6.7 million people of working age are disabled, and in the US that figure is about 35 million individuals. Can you really afford to ignore 41 million potential customers from those two countries alone? After all, the disabled community in the UK is estimated to possess a spending power of £33 billion.
Other Benefits of Accessible Web Design
Accessibility isn't just about catering to disabled visitors though; the web is used by millions of different combinations of people, browsers and computers. Not everyone uses Internet Explorer on a desktop PC running Windows — Apple Macs and Linux are increasing in popularity, as are browsers such as Netscape, Opera and OmniWeb. Additionally, some people are effectively rendered 'disabled' by the technology they are using:
- Portable devices, like laptops and PDAs (such as Palm Pilots) will usually have limitations such small screen size and low resolution, or even text-only screens and voice browsers;
- Not everyone uses the latest technology; for example, libraries, charities and people in developing countries often have to use old computers, out-of-date browsers and slow Internet connections;
- Search engines are effectively text-only browsers — an accessible site is more likely to get a good listing in, say, Google.
Remember, an accessible web site can be used by anyone, no matter what technology they're using.
