Underground Web Designs Blog

If you’re in the market for a new website, you may hear the term “accessible” tossed around. Just like a wheel chair accessible building is usable by people who cannot walk, an accessible website is built with those who have disabilities in mind. Though some disabilities prohibit use of the internet at all (paralysis, for example) some disabilities still allow a person to use the internet if certain considerations are taken into account when a website is designed.

Two of the most common disabilities that web designers can compensate for are blindness and colorblindness. Because so much of the internet experience is primarily visual, it is important to take into consideration how someone who has difficulty seeing can interact with your site.

Most colorblind people will be able to navigate most of the internet without trouble, however some sites that look fine to most people can be unendingly frustrating to them. Because colorblind people have trouble seeing one or more colors, using the wrong colors in your website can cause links, text, or background to blend together, resulting in a site that is unreadable, or a menu that disappears to a colorblind person. The good news is that it’s relatively easy to test how your site will look to a colorblind person. Tools such as this one show you how your site looks to people with various types of color blindness.

Outright blindness is a much harder thing to design for. Since blind people cannot read your web page at all, they must rely on programs called “screen readers” to read the text on the screen out loud. Though this may sound straight forward, often it isn’t. For example, screen readers cannot read flash content or text contained in images. It is possible to design a website in such a way that screen readers will still be able to use a site that makes extensive use of images, or even flash (often by having a separate “non flash” site); and yet many sites don’t make use of these work arounds.

When you’re looking for your next website, be sure you specify that you want a fully accessable site so that everyone can access it equaly. In fact, accessability is more than just the right thing to do. Many of the same practices that make your site more friendly to those with disabilities will also help your site be seen better by search engines. This in turn can result in higher rankings and more traffic to your site. As if that weren’t enough incentive, In some regions you may be legaly required to ensure that your site meets minimum accessability guidelines.

Don’t just go with good enough. Making sure your site is easily accessible to everyone can be a powerful compeditive advantage in a mediocre marketplace.