Web Design and Accessibility
It is a fact that W3C compliant sites employing solid
web design techniques tend to be far more efficient, faster
and compatible with a larger variety of browser media
than their non-compliant counterparts, thus providing
a better user experience.
Additionally, the use of compliant HTML code and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
in a site’s architecture will provide a significant boost to its search
engine friendliness.
It has been said that if W3C standards were to be stringently
implemented by browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer™,
Mozilla Firefox and Opera™, upwards of 90% of existing
web sites would be out of business overnight.
Whilst this comment has drawn some sarcastic comments
from less knowledgeable parts of the web design industry,
those designers aware of coming European Union legislation
have been quietly preparing for major changes during coming
years.
The keyword is ‘accessibility’.
Thus far, the needs of disabled internet users (especially
the visually impaired) have been largely ignored by the
web design industry.
European Union legislation however is preparing to implement
major changes to laws governing disability access and
disability discrimination, especially where these pertain
to information stored on the World Wide Web.
Although these changes are not likely to happen overnight,
they are looming on the horizon like a threatening cloud,
warning the web design community of an impending storm
which is likely to sink any sites not anchored by solid
web design techniques and compliant code.
A word to the wise
It is an ironic fact that the screen readers and text
only browsers used by disabled web surfers most closely
emulate the way in which search engine spiders perceive
web sites, by isolating editorial content from the eye-candy
which accompanies most web pages and getting at the raw
information.
Ergo; if a page is not usable by a human surfer using
a text only browser, what chance does a search engine
spider have of successfully indexing it?
This is where we arrive at search engines again, which
according to statistics are the source for upwards of
80% of total traffic flow to any given site thus making
them the single most important source of visitors on the
internet.
And yet, by and large search engine spiders are being
treated with the same disdain that the average web designer
shows for disabled internet users.
The web development community as a whole must accept
that solid web design techniques and strict adherence
to W3C standards are the only way forwards where the internet
as a whole is concerned.
Unfortunately this is not likely to happen until such
time as the industry’s hand is forced by forthcoming
legislation.
In the meantime, many online business owners are becoming
disillusioned by the poor search engine performance of
their sites without realising the root causes behind this.
To find out what can be done about this, please contact
us.
Accessibility is an effective aid to web promotion
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