Why Web Accessibility Matters

July 22, 2007 | Filed Under Accessibility, Web Site Development, General

I would like to take a moment to thank Aaron for asking me to write for Solo Signal about Web accessibility and usability topics. In this article I would like to focus on accessible web design as it relates to good business practices. My next article will focus on the usability aspects of site design, and how it relates to businesses and individuals alike.

So, what exactly is Web Accessibility?

If you Google search “Web Accessibility” you will receive 217 million results in the search. That is a lot of information to look through to try to find the true meaning of accessible web design. You can pick through the results and find technical sites that relate to the W3C web standards, sites that offer guidance to web developers and site creators and even more results that attempt to make sense of what the true meaning of accessible web design really is.

Let’s take a look at an excerpt of the Wikipedia definition of “Web accessibility“:

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.

In other words, a site has to be correctly designed (usable) and developed (coded) so that all users, irregardless of ability or viewing medium, can have access to the information you are conveying and the functionality of the site. The key words here are information and functionality for all users.

Why Information is Important…

As a business owner that either has, or is looking to create a web site, your main goal is to relay information about your products or services in order to create, maintain and grow your business. You want to provide information about who you are and what you do in order to reach the most people with the least amount of effort, and cost possible. As an individual that is surfing the internet, you want to be able to quickly and easily locate the information that is important to you. Why waste the time thinking you have finally found those instructions on how to get rid of that blue screen of death, only to find that you are on a site that sells caskets?

Imagine this

If you own a traditional business store front, imagine turning away every fifth person that comes to the door to do business with you. There is no particular reason for turning them away, you don’t know them and can’t tell anything about the individual. Or, picture turning off all of your lights and painting your windows black, and then expecting your customers to find exactly what they came to your business to buy. What if you were to cram your whole warehouse of items into a small storefront that didn’t allow room for anyone to shop or move around? These scenarios aren’t going to be a positive experience for your customers. This is the type of experience that disabled users face everyday while online.

A person with a disability doesn’t have to have a severe disability in order to have problems surfing online. It could be an individual that has a vision problem and needs to make their font size larger than the default size. Can this be easily accomplished on your site? What about a person that has a developmental delay? Can they easily understand the information and content on your site, or are they confused by the terminology and extensive content that is overwhelming them? Users of your site that have dexterity issues, such as arthritis, might have a tough time using a mouse or the keyboard extensively to navigate your site. Another consideration is that a lot of internet users still are on dial-up connections. And let’s not forget about the new internet users that have their PDA or mobile device. This is a rapidly growing area that requires accessible web design and careful thought into your sites design.

About your business site

I won’t bore you with the details about how to create an accessible site, with examples of coding valid XHTML and CSS, but the basics come down to being able to still read the content (information) of any site just like it was a book. If all of the pictures, styles, colors and decorations on any site were to be turned off, would the content of the site still make sense? Would you be able to follow along with the stories and articles, or easily find your products that you came to buy? Is the navigation easy to follow and once you are on the page you are looking for, do you still know where you are? There are a few more reasons to have an accessible site.

There are many other reasons for web accessibility. These are but a few of them. It all boils down to the original definition that we covered in the beginning of this article.

You want to be able to make your information available to the most users possible.

In my next article, I will discuss some of the functionality and usability issues that are encountered and how to ensure your site is easily navigated by all users. If you would like to learn more about accessible web design, feel free to contact me via my sites contact form.

Here are a few good resources also for you to check out:

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Web Stack Series Part 3: The Database

July 5, 2007 | Filed Under Database, Technology

Filing CabinetsParts 1 and 2 of our look at the Web Stack introduced us to the Physical Server and the Webserver Software. Part 3 of the series brings us to the second piece of software installed on the physical server: the Database.

Dynamic, database-driven web sites have become the gold standard on the Web. Sites are updated in real time, user-generated content fills ever page, custom-tailored data targets specific users, and data is changed on the fly - all thanks to the database. It is rare to find a website that doesn’t make use of a database in some way or another. The database has become the brain of the modern web site.

So what is a database? Let’s check in with our old pal Wikipedia for a quick and dirty definition:

In computing, a database can be defined as a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer so that a program can consult it to answer queries.

Though this may sound simplistic, the definition is spot on. A database is nothing more than a bunch of data (usually plain text) stored and indexed in a structured manner. This allows for specific data to be found quickly and painlessly. Perhaps an analogy is in order: A library is like a database - it is a central repository of books stored in a structured system (Dewey Decimal). This system makes it easy for a person to quickly find a specific book.

The larger and more complex sites on the internet typically store all of their content in a database and retrieve the appropriate data when necessary. The web page that is requested by the user is said to “query” the database for the appropriate data to be displayed. Databases can be queried using a special language called Structured Query Language or “SQL” (pronounced like “sequel”). SQL is simply a special type of language that makes it easy and intuitive to extract data from a database. There are people who spend their entire careers mastering SQL, although you can probably teach yourself the basics of SQL in about a month or two.

Here are a couple of things you should know about database systems:

In the next part of this series, we will talk about the glue that connects the user, the webserver and the database all together. Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss out!

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