Is my site accessible?

Posted by Lacey Kruger at Jun 18, 2009 01:55 PM CDT
Categories: Accessibility

Chances are, you already know how important it is to have an accessible web site. I’ll spare you a lecture on that subject here by reminding you that your site should, most definitely, be accessible.

So, how do you know if it is? Is it enough to have alt tags on your images? Do you have to install a screen reader to test and see? I attended an awesome session on accessibility at the UPA conference and the folks over at Fidelity Investments shared some great questions to use to test out your site:

  1. Can you navigate your site using just your keyboard? (Hint: use the TAB key)
  2. Is all graphic and audio/visual content also represented in text somehow? Is that text an equivalent substitute?
  3. Is your information architecture, or hierarchy, represented in the code? So, if I see something as a heading, is it also represented that way in the code?
  4. Is your content all flexible, scalable and legible for various browsers, font size settings and screen resolutions? Test out a few different options to see.
  5. Will the content read in the correct order? If you disable CSS, can you still make sense of the order of what you’re reading? (Note: This is also known as separating content from design)
  6. Have all the form fields and buttons or controls been labeled properly?

These questions are a great starting point or quick-test to see if you have some issues to address. Working toward an accessible site from an exisiting site can take a great deal of time. If you’re redesigning, remember to keep accessibility at the forefront so you can avoid retroactive changes to make your site accessible. Can you think of any other considerations for accessibility? Feel free to add in the comments.
 


blog comments powered by Disqus
Convio

Subscriptions

Subscribe to the RSS feed

Subscribe to receive posts via email:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Convio Clients

Get answers to product questions, join "Birds of a Feather" discussions and more. Join the Online Community





Convio on YouTube
www.flickr.com
conviosoftware's items tagged with connectioncafe More of conviosoftware's stuff tagged with connectioncafe

Alltop, all the top stories

NTEN member

Categories

Blogs We're Following

Archives