Accessibility in web design
Web accessibility is one of those areas of web design that is vague, hard to understand and, to a lot of people, hard to implement. With the range of browsers, mobile devices and huge numbers of people searching the internet every day, how can you design an attractive, usable site that is also accessible to everyone?
The answer lies in how you work and how a new website design is formed, from the initial mockups and design through to templates, coding and the final, live site.
At Best Served Cold we start the design process with a knowledge of web accessibility and strict xHTML/CSS coding in mind. From the beginning of each website build we look at how the site will need to work with different technologies and what we can do to make those technologies accessible.
By using a system called semantic markup we ensure that each website is readable by all web browsers - even PDAs and mobile phones. This system of coding a website coupled with the strict use of xHTML and CSS gives our sites a great start towards full accessibility standards.
By coding to WAI guidelines we also give all our sites a headstart with SEO as many of the best practices used to optimise for search engines are also at the heart of a fully accessible website.
If you’d like to know more about accessibility please contact us. We are also available to consult on all aspects of web accessibility from initial design and code through to recommendations on existing websites.
