An article published today states that “Most of the leading websites around the world are failing to provide the most basic accessibility standards for people with disabilities.”
This is somewhat expected because as Mark Gristock from Foviance says, “This is the same results we always get. The guidelines have been in place for seven years but they aren’t actually checkpoints so people can interpret them in a variety of ways. What is needed is practical advice about what happens when you build a website.
“Building dull, technically compliant websites is easy but building commercially successful sites that are also accessible is not.”
I think the majority of web designers and developers are getting the idea but there is still a long way to go yet.
Read my previous article on tips to improve accessibility in your websites.
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December 5th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
“Building dull, technically compliant websites is easy but building commercially successful sites that are also accessible is not.”
OK, this is simply not a valid excuse any more.
In these situations, I often like point people towards CSS Zen Garden (go to: http://csszengarden.com/) for some visual enlightenment.
And after consulting your posting policies (very closely, I might add) here’s something I prepared earlier on just this subject among other issues related to web standards (go to: http://myblah-blah-tech.blogspot.com/2006/10/when-it-comes-to-web-standards-web.html)
It’s a 2-parter, so do grab a warm drink before you begin! ;-)
December 6th, 2006 at 8:16 am
Wayne, thanks for the article. I agree that it’s not a very good excuse any more. There are tons of “CSS web design” galleries out there, that’s where I get my showcase Friday sites from!
To be honest, I think its a case of the big corporations just not being bothered enough about standards and semantic markup. It’s now law here in the UK that public facing websites (Police, NHS etc) have to comply to a minimum of “A” standard, but I bet there are a hell of a lot that don’t even come close!
December 6th, 2006 at 9:31 am
It’s a question of education.
As I mention in the article, I was one of those with my head in the sand, but then I looked up and saw the opportunity to differentiate myself.
And as you’ll have discovered, good web standards means very good and very efficient SEO…