Access all areas of the web

While we may perceive web accessibility as primarily dealing with design issues for disabled site visitors, this is taking a much too blinkered view. For within the locus of accessibility lies a whole range of usability considerations that affect every single visitor that happens upon on our web site.

 Disabled or not, site visitors can experience a number of obstacles lying in the path of their informational and purchasing goals. Making your site easy to do business with should therefore be a constant on the web presence agenda.

Perhaps it is an age thing, but, personally, I’m still impressed that we are able to see anything of the web in the first place! When you consider all the electronic transactions to and fro, the chopped up parcels of data sent across phone lines to be reassembled in precisely the right order at the other end, it’s amazing that we now take it for granted. Add the almost infinite permutations of chip sets, monitor size, monitor resolution, web browsers - and individual versions of web browsers - connection technologies, connection speeds and line conditions, and it induces the non ice-cream variant of brain freeze. (For me, anyway).

Accessibility, then, is damage limitation, best defined, in this instance, as arriving at the best compromise for the majority of web traffic and staying within the law on access for the disabled.

So what are the accessibility/usability challenges that may catch us unawares?

Not everyone, for example, uses the latest version of Internet Explorer fully loaded with all the plug-ins including Java, ShockWave and Flash. Indeed, not everyone uses Explorer; an increasing number of people are opting for FireFox. Others are not even using Windows, for that matter. Think Linux and Mac users.

A site that relies heavily on images, Flash or JavaScript, without providing alternative HTML and text versions, will be rendered as no go areas for web users depending on assistive web technologies or who are running older browsers or have switched images off due to their slow connection speed.

Flash intro movies, once de rigeur, are now viewed as passe indulgences. Even users with the Flash browser plug-in installed won’t hang around to watch without being given a good reason to do so. None more so than users with low bandwidth speeds.

JavaScript, too, is another minefield. Many web users switch it off for security reasons or to prevent pop up ads.

So far in this article the assumption has been that users will be viewing our sites with a standard-issue desktop computer. Like it or not, though, we now have to accommodate an ever growing list of devices with web browsing capability including mobile phones, hand held computers and WebTV.

The accessibility/usability debate therefore looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. What remains unchanged is the core essence of being online, the fundamental reason for our web presence: to reach a wider audience with our message and generate sales. No matter the practical details of the business and online landscape in which we operate, the ultimate goal is capturing eyeballs and converting them into customers. It pays to be accessible.

Useful browser emulator links

WebTV simulator -  your site as seen on TV

Lynx viewer – your site as seen by a text browser

WinWap – check mobile-enabled web sites from your desktop machine or Pocket PC with a free 30 day evaluation trial of the WinWap moby web browser

Phone simulator – free software download to emulate web-enabled mobile phones. Aimed at developers rather than web site owners though.

Palm OS emulator – Palm OS powers some 40 million handhelds and smartphones. Check how your mobile site appears to Windows, UNIX and Mac end users with this download. Also requires downloading of the ROM device image to view the emulated pages.

pwWebSpeak - browser designed for users who wish to access the Internet in a non-visual or combined auditory and visual way. This includes blind or partially sighted users, people with dyslexia or learning difficulties, and users who are learning new languages

AOL browser info – the ISP with the proprietary software still commands a sizeable chunk of the market. Web developer info on supporting the AOL browser

Browsershots.org – get free screenshots of a web page as viewed by a selection of browsers. Results can take over an hour to appear in the screenshots page of the site

Good old days -  take a trip down memory lane with this site that enables today’s browsers to simulate browsers from yesteryear. Nostalgia or scary ‘Netscape Mosaic’ look at how it used to be?

Backwards compatibility – check individual design features for support by older browsers