Comments on: Five Tips in Making a Visually Accessible Website

By: Diana

Diana — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:25:24 +0000

As an Occupational Therapy student, I have to say that these suggestions could help many people out there with a variety of disabilities. Perceptual problems as well as vision problems seem to be on the rise in general, be it from simple vision problems that come with aging to perception issues with autism and other disabilities. Flashy sites can distract and overwhelm viewers who quickly click away.
Another tip, avoid blinking icons that can trigger seizures! I don’t know how many times I’ve had to quickly click away from a page before my husband had a seizure because some web artist thought it a good idea to use a strobe effect. This goes double for pop up adds and banner adds!

By: C.S.McClendon

C.S.McClendon — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:42:32 +0000

Ehlanna: The information will be easier to find soon enough as I mean to start a running blog for these types of tips soon. Hopefully that will help in promoting ideas like this and many more like them.

Tommy:There are sites out there that show the responsibility you speak of, but unfortunately they are by large, ones who hope to draw the disabled as their -target- audience. Beyond that, it seems to be the flashy gimmicks, usually quite literally, that carry the day. Unfortunately, these gimmicks as a rule do little more after the original shock value than to get in the way.

By: DarkestStryke

DarkestStryke — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:04:34 +0000

Simple, clear and concise. If only more people would follow simple steps like this then the internet would become accessable for so many more people out there.

The suggestions aren’t only good they are also, at least in my opinion, practical enough that everyone should keep them in mind whilst designing a website, be it from simple single page to a complex shop site. After all, if your customers can’t read or view the site in question, then they are liable to head elsewhere for their goods.

Yes to implement some of these tips might take a little longer during inital creation, but the off-set against the potental for increased visitor count and other totals, should be more than enough to outweigh that intial outlay of time and effort.

All in all this article has opened my eyes to some tips that I hadn’t considered implementing, and rest assured that from now on I will do my best to make anything I design as user friendly and as accessable to the masses as possible

By: Tommy R.

Tommy R. — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:10:16 +0000

Excellent advice to the web designer on making websites accessable to the visually challenged. I agree with the tips shared in this article and wish more designers showed the interest and responsibility in more accessability and less flashy gimics.

By: Ehlanna

Ehlanna — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:06:35 +0000

Simple tips, that once learned would take no extra time in developing web sites. It’s just the limited amout of extra effort involved in finding the information and getting it all setup at the start. I can imagine a lot of small sites, ones run by individuals, for individuals not bothering. But any site that uses bulletin software or is commercial in nature shoud allow and, better yet, promote these options

By: C.S.McClendon

C.S.McClendon — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:56:56 +0000

Thank you all for your support, and thanks again to all of you who have committed to using some or all of my advice.

Skylar: If you run into a problem with a site that you don’t visit all that often, you can tell your browser to ignore the websites chosen formatting and force it to use your own choices like colors and font size, and then put them back when your done…. the problem with using that trick all the time is that it often gets in the way of frames and the like, making sites difficult to navigate.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:53:04 +0000

Well done, nicely written, if ever I make a website I’ll be sure to use your informative advice.

By: Skylar

Skylar — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:09:28 +0000

Hmmm….sounds as if those would be a very useful set of rules that all web-enhanced browsing producers should consider when creating their works for the world to so. I’m no more hindered than most people that must wear glasses if they wish to see more than 5′ away with any degree of accuracy, or read anything within a foot that isn’t type-size about 24 or up, but I have still found many web sites that are difficult for me to read. There are some times I find myself skipping a few lines at a time and getting confused at a seemingly complete topic change before I have to go back and figure out what went wrong. I also cannot count the number of times that it has been necessary for me to squint, or highlight words to be able to distinguish between the background and the text itself, because the web artist has chosen colors similar in the spectrum. Personally, I believe that if more web designers followed your advice here, it would make finding and enjoying the aspects of the internet that we are interested in.

By: Aestas

Aestas — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:12:13 +0000

You know, these are things I would have never thought about. And yet they are so simple and easy to implement. :} Thank you.

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:19:05 +0000

If i was a web designer.. i would probably use many of these. Im not, so i can just say ‘makes sense’

By: John

John — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:05:31 +0000

I agree with most of this. I have bad eyes myself, and I have to, on most occasions, make the font bigger so I can read it properly. I also agree with the 4th principle, and apply it to most of the things I do in life. Well written, and well done. Keep up the good work.

By: the wren

the wren — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:20:07 +0000

I am a web-page designer, free-lance, and this article was informative and well thought-out.
I continue to try to create fun, good looking, and easy to navigate web-pages, and this is a solid reminder on what things might be taken into account, for ease-of-access web-pages.

By: Missy

Missy — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:27:40 +0000

Very well written and very nicely done. I think all of us can learn from this article.

By: Cae

Cae — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:52:21 +0000

Wow! Very good article. I’ve designed websites before and I will definitely take into consideration some of these tips when I make my next web site!

By: marc

marc — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:29:09 +0000

Very good tips for not only those with visual probs but even those without them.