Accessibility Issues Make a Difference

You often read advice from industry experts along the lines of "using tags as they were meant to be used" and limiting your use of advanced programming techniques in order to make your site accessible.

Alt Attributes and Using Images as Links Most site builders today know that alt attributes SHOULD be used to describe an image or offer a short description of the page being linked to if the image is being used as a link. And yet, people still stuff them with keyword phrases or don't use them at all. But, come on, who really surfs with their images turned off? No one *really* sees those alt attributes, do they? Yes, they do! Recently, on a trip out of town, I found myself with no local access numbers for the dial-up service I use while traveling. After trying several different solutions, I bought a prepaid Internet access service that connected me to the Internet at a blazing 26.4 kps. Since every minute was being ticked off my available time, I turned off everything non-essential in the browser, including images and JavaScript. The world of the Internet was suddenly a very different place. I found myself unable to navigate and totally confused by several sites, even ones I visit regularly. I truly appreciated the sites that used alt attributes properly for their image links, but even more than that, I loved sites that utilize text links for their main navigation. When text links were included in the footer, it allowed me to use sites with JavaScript turned off in my browser. You may think that people surfing with images and JavaScript off is still pretty rare, but think again. Mobile devices are growing in popularity and have similar issues with the inability to show graphic-intensive pages and utilize third-party plug-ins. Accessibility Issues Within Your Site The reality is that many companies don't realize the impact their design decisions have on the usability and basic functionality of their site. You may not be able to convince the marketing department to change that background image that makes your site hard to read, or convince the CEO that the cool flyover menus are preventing some people from accessing your site. Solving accessibility problems can improve the overall experience for all users, so it is worth making the effort. The first step is to identify the issues that may be causing difficulties for users. When building or checking a site, don't just check it on different browsers. Check it on a slow dial-up connection using a laptop, then turn the images off and see if you can still use the site. If you want a comprehensive analysis of issues with your site, consider having a usability report done. This can help identify many other obstacles in addition to accessibility issues. At the very least, consider adding a text-friendly version of your site for people who have accessibility issues. (Be sure to exclude the duplicate site from search engine spiders using your robots.txt file.) The number of users (and potential customers) who are not able to navigate your site may be higher than you realize! *Previously published at Right Click Web Consulting. She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the Administrator of the Cre8asite Forums.