Building accessible websites

When building a new website, one of the important things to keep in mind is that some people have disabilities. These can be minor, for instance, a light degree of color blindness, or major, like being blind. For the people with disabilities, it's a challenge to find the tools they can best use to browse the web.

The webdesigner has the moral obligation of trying to make the websites accessible to these people. Most of the time, that's not hard, as it usually just requires removing some obstacles, and writing clean code. Sometimes it's a bit harder, and needs some more work.

As a member of the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (the GAWDS), I will always try to make the sites and themes I build, as accessible as possible.

Some simple examples of good accessibility

• Always assign a label to a formfield.
• Make sure the colour combinations used have enough contrast.
• Always use alt attributes on images.

Want to know more?

If you want me to build a new accessible website for you, or want me to check on the accessibility of your current site, contact me!