The World Wide Web is an incredible resource; one which has always been touted as something which benefits all mankind (or at least everyone with internet access). However, there are some users who have effectively been shut out of a large part of the web due to web design issues.

Increasingly, accessible web site design is being seen as important by webmasters and design firms alike who are interested in making their sites available to a wider audience and being inclusive of web users who have visual impairments or other disabilities.

"The internet, after all, is supposed to be for everyone.

So how can you ensure that your site meets accessible web site design standards?

The best place to start is with the guidelines provided by the W3C, the consortium which is as close as the web comes to a regulatory body. According to this organization, an accessible web site is one which is as close as possible to universally accessible, with the site being usable by all visitors, even those with disabilities.

Truly accessible web site design means a website which can be used by:

• Users with older browsers or those which lack newer plugins (such as Flash and Java);


• Those using text-only browsers such as Lynx and w3m;


• Visually impaired users who surf the web with text-to-speech web browsers;


• People who have limited access to the web; including users with older 28.8K and 14.4K modems;


• Users who are deaf or hard of hearing;


• Dyslexic users;


• Users with learning disabilities;


• People with impaired motor abilities, including paraplegic and quadriplegic users.

Implementing accessible design is a win-win for everyone involved; disabled users and users with non-traditional or older web browsers have equal access to the content of an accessible site.

The website owner, for their part, gains access to an audience they may not have been able to reach otherwise; something which gives them an opportunity to foster loyalty among these users in a world where there are still many websites which fall far short of the W3C's guidelines for accessible web site design.

Website owners also benefit from an improved search engine ranking; the major search engines favor sites which meet accessibility standards. These sites also have the advantage of being able to reuse existing content in formats suitable for different users and reduce the need for website maintenance work.

By creating a site which meets accessible web site design guidelines and making their content more readily available to users with low speed internet access, the site's server load may also be significantly reduced, which improves the performance of the site for all visitors, regardless of the browser they use and any disabilities they do or do not have.

One thing to keep in mind is that in the UK at least, there are laws in place which require websites to meet certain accessibility standards. This is a trend which is seen as likely to expand to other nations; webmasters would be well served to get ahead of the curve and redesign their sites according to accessible web site design standards beforehand.

So how can you get started figuring out if your web pages are accessible?

One good test is to "look" at the page with a text-to-speech browser to get an idea of how your content appears to visually impaired users. It's a simple test which can tell you a lot about how your website is doing in meeting - or not meeting the W3C guidelines for accessible web site design.