| Every website / web application should conform to | | | | any, you need to put into accessibility. From a purist |
| accessibility standards and adhere to good usability | | | | point of view, this is blasphemy; all web content |
| practices, right? | | | | should be accessible. From a business point of view, |
| Wrong. | | | | there may be a good case for not conforming to |
| Though it's an admirable target to aim for, achieving | | | | accessibility guidelines. A friend of mine worked on |
| accessibility standards compliance with optimal | | | | some web-marketing material for a large car |
| usability is not always viable. The two don't always | | | | manufacturer. He told me that their position on web |
| play nicely together. Sure enough, well-formed, | | | | content accessibility was "Blind people don't buy cars". |
| semantic HTML output and well though out content | | | | This seems callous at first glance, but when you think |
| structure will do most of the work for you in hitting | | | | about it, the work required to ensure that all of their |
| the twin targets of accessibility and usability but | | | | web-content is accessible to the blind is probably not |
| occasionally there is a see-saw effect. If you want | | | | worth the return they will get in terms on |
| to use rich interactive elements to enhance the user | | | | non-sighted customers. It becomes unviable from a |
| experience and improve the potential usability of your | | | | business perspective. |
| design, you may find that you are also making the | | | | It's a rather short-sighted view (if you'll pardon the |
| design less accessible. What are the questions that | | | | pun) as accessibility could extend to users accessing |
| we should ask ourselves when planning a new | | | | the content from mobile devices. Web capable mobile |
| feature for a website or web application? The | | | | phones and PDAs are commonplace these days but |
| following are some of mine. | | | | if your content does not display properly on a small |
| "Will it impact accessibility?" | | | | screen, you could be shutting out more potential |
| We need to determine if our new feature will have a | | | | users than just those with a disability. |
| negative impact on the accessibility of the content. | | | | "Do we need to do it properly?" |
| This could be due to user interactions e.g. clicking on | | | | If you are concerned only with passing automated |
| a link, causing the page to fetch new content from | | | | accessibility tests then your work won't be that |
| the server and inserting it into the middle of some | | | | difficult as the validation software cannot detect |
| existing content. Non-visual browsers may not | | | | whether or not your dynamically generated div with |
| register the fact that this new content exists. | | | | XMLHTTP imported content is vital to using the |
| "Do we REALLY need this feature?" | | | | website. A NOSCRIPT tag in the page will probably |
| If you can't justify the interactive element as | | | | see that your page validates, but that's not really in |
| absolutely essential, then there is little point in wasting | | | | the spirit of the thing is it? |
| time and effort on building something that will actually | | | | What's the final score then? |
| degrade the value of your content. In many cases | | | | In an article written for Digital Web magazine, P-P |
| you may feel that a feature is not strictly essential | | | | Koch writes: |
| but gives your content a competitive edge by | | | | "The delicate balance between accessibility and |
| making it stand out from the crowd. This is fine; I've | | | | usability needs more thought. At the moment I don't |
| poured enough effort over the years into doing stuff | | | | see any answers, only a few questions, one possible |
| just because it was 'cool' to know that stagnation | | | | rule, and a potential danger. The rule is "Accessibility |
| occurs if you don't try to push the boundaries from | | | | should not restrict usability"." |
| time to time. | | | | As a possible rule, this is a nice starting point but is a |
| "Can we make it accessible easily?" | | | | little too neat and tidy considering the mass of |
| Are there any existing techniques that will allow us to | | | | complications and assumptions that it represents. The |
| build the new feature and still retain the required | | | | issues of accessibility and usability in web design are, |
| degree of accessibility? Looking for the path of least | | | | in my opinion, still too immature to strap down with |
| resistance is always a good exercise. If you find a | | | | rules of thumb. Until we no longer have to make |
| solution, you may have to compromise your feature's | | | | compromises between our usability enhancements |
| functionality or the degree of accessibility slightly, but | | | | and accessibility guidelines then we should evaluate |
| the savings in time and effort may be worth it. | | | | each piece of content on it's own merits. |
| "How accessible does it need to be?" | | | | For now at least, I declare a draw. |
| The target audience may affect how much effort, if | | | | |