More Accessible Web Design - Web Accessibility Gurus?

Published: 14th February 2007

Once again, we return to the topic of accessible web design.
It’s been about five months since I posted my last article on the subject in IceGiant’s archive and boy, has a lot happened since then.

For starters, accessible web design is now becoming a topic of choice, with all manner of new and established companies jumping onto this particular bandwagon with a will.

Is it time then, for the industry to give itself a collective pat on the back and begin the process of self-congratulation for having tackled this particular subject with such determination?

Not quite...
Whilst it is undoubtedly a good thing for the web development and promotion industries to recognise the importance of accessible web design, we now seem to have entered the inevitable ‘cashing-in phase’, where everybody and his brother is suddenly an online accessibility expert displaying his self-proclaimed knowledge of the guidelines laid down by WCAG, PAS 78 and Section 508.
Unfortunately, a healthy proportion of these new web accessibility gurus are also quite blatantly playing on their potential customer’s ignorance and paranoia in much the same way certain less ethical operators in the SEO sector were carrying on a couple of years back with W3C compliance by trying to bully potential clients into implementing their particular version of accessible web design.

“We all know what happened to Target.com… Do you want to be the next ‘Target’ on the hit-list?”

Yes, the NFB did launch a test case against Target.com in the Californian courts.
Yes, they did win, thus setting a legal precedent.
Yes, this will prompt an ever increasing number of court cases against online retailers and, in all likelihood, lead to an eventual change in legislation governing disability access online, certainly in the USA and Europe.

However, whilst all the above statements are true, any implementation of accessible web design should be undertaken with care and thought; not in a hurry, simply because some self-proclaimed web accessibility guru is trying to force the issue by spouting half-truths down a phone-line.

If, as an online business owner, you are thinking about addressing your site’s accessibility issues, my advice would have to be to seek out an established operator in the field and, more importantly, one whose company employs or preferably is owned by those most closely concerned with the topic of accessible web design; the disabled web users themselves.

Occasionally I get asked why, in the face of the recent publicity had by WebXact and others, there is even a need to trouble disabled web users with accessibility tests when online tools are available to check a web site’s compliance automatically?

The simple answer to this question is that the currently available means of automatic compliance testing are only able to verify a relatively small (albeit important) percentage of currently recommended standards.
You can find out more about web accessibility compliance testing in page two of this article. Please click here.

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Accessible Web Design has taken a step into the limelight in recent months

Early draft for BF Trust-Factor
Click on image for enlargement

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Professional Web Design

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But, is a part-time web designer able to produce professional web design results and, more importantly, are they able to cope when things go wrong?

Effective Web Promotion

As most commercial webmasters will tell you, there is no quick and easy route to search engine success, unless a web site happens to fall into an extremely obscure niche.
These days, effective web promotion has to begin at the design stage, taking into consideration a multitude of factors, including W3C standards and the search engine's own guidelines.
Accessible web design also plays an important part, since search engine spiders view web sites in much the same way as a disabled user's internet browser.