Web Design and Accessibility are linked to successful web promotion.
It has also been said that if 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. And while this comment has drawn some sarcastic comments
from less knowledgeable parts of the web design industry,
those designers aware of looming 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. Proposed 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. And although these changes are not likely to happen overnight,
they are nevertheless hovering on the horizon like a threatening cloud,
warning the web design community of an impending storm
which is likely to sink any websites not anchored by solid
web design techniques and compliant code.
A word to the wise, is all...
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.
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 World Wide Web
as a whole is concerned. Unfortunately though, 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 .
|
|
|
Back to Web Design Articles
Back to Main Articles Category
Back to Top of Page |
