#21014
Beyond Accessibility: Treating Users with Disabilities as People
With current Web design practices, users without disabilities experience three times higher usability than users who are blind or have low vision. Usability guidelines can substantially improve the matter by making websites and intranets support task performance for users with disabilities.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Accessibility>Web Design>Universal Usability
#27605
Beyond Guidelines: Advanced Accessibility Techniques
Find out how to go beyond the W3C accessibility guidelines and offer a truly accessible web experience.
Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#25262
Research shows that low-vision people need dramatically different web design. CSS lets you give them what they need.
Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#23353
The Blind Leading the Blind: Theorizing a Web for the Visually Impaired 
An examination of government websites (those required to adhere to Section 508) revealed no common practices or themes.
Moore, Jessica and Joseph Matthews. IAsummit (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508
#27486
Making the web accessible by disabled people doesn't necessarily make it usable. Does simplicity always make for ideal usability - or are there instances where an innovative website might be difficult to use, but also hold usability dividends for users prepared to meet the technology halfway?
Starr, Sandy. Spiked Online (2002). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility
#30299
Bobby: the World Wide Web Accessibility Tool and Your Web Site 
Bobby tools can help you know some real touches you can give to your web site to enrich its accessibility. Since the Bobby document is the generalization of strategies and techniques to further web site usability concern, you can selectively and optimally adopt them to serve your purpose the best way.
Azam, Rahbre. Amateur Writerz (2007). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Assessment
#22954
Ask anyone who has had to fix a Website that's littered with accessibility howlers, and top-most in their list of problems encountered will be forms, closely followed by tables. These two topics always seem to present the most difficulties, but they needn't be a problem. For the most part, forms are a problem because the extra accessibility tags are simply not known to the Web designer -- after all, it looks right, it seems to work... what's the problem? Only by switching off the monitor and using a screen-reader can our oblivious Web developer understand the issues.
Lloyd, Ian. SitePoint (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Forms
#22955
Architects call the concept of making choices that work best for the greatest number of people 'barrier-free design.' While no Web site—or building, for that matter—can be equally accessible to everyone, the intellectual shift from thinking of accessibility as an add-on can be liberating. There are plenty of good reasons for constructing your sites with as few barriers as possible.
Kuchinskas, Susan. New Architect (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#26649
CSS and XHTML have given tables a pretty rough ride in recent times. Of course, this is the fault of just about all web developers who have at some point in their career used them for laying out page elements. This article is not about using tables for layout. It is about how to use tables to display information in an accessible manner.
Roberts, Tim. evolt (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#20055
Building Accessible Websites: Serialization
Designers assume accessibility means a boring site, a myth borne out by oldschool accessibility advocates, whose hostility to visual appeal is barely suppressed. Neither camp has its head screwed on right. It's not either/or; it's both/and.
Clark, Joe. JoeClark.org (2002). Books>Web Design>Accessibility
#21530
The Business Case for Web Accessibility
Makes the business case for catering to the widest audience possible. Identifies groups of people who have problems accessing the web, and explains how building web sites they are able to use can positively impact your bottom line.
Budd, Andy. Blogography (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Business Case
#26037
Can Color-Blind Users See Your Site?
Information that will help you to create more readable Web sites.
Hess, Robert. Microsoft (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Color
#18286
Can Expanding Targets Make Object Selection Easier for Older Adults?
Given the proliferation of computers and rapidly aging demographic trends, there is a critical need for user interface designs that accommodate older adults. It is known that many adults in this age group experience declines in cognitive, sensory, and/or motor capacities that may interfere with their ability to interact effectively with current user interfaces. Motor behavior slows with age. Compared to younger adults, older adults take longer to complete the same movement, and their movements are more variable, less smooth, and less coordinated (Seidler & Stelmach, 1996). The loss of fine motor skills makes it difficult for older adults to position cursors on computer screens, particularly when interacting with small objects (Chaparro, et al., 1999; Walker et al., 1996). This can lead to greater frustration and possibly increased risk of cumulative trauma due to prolonged periods of time in awkward postures. This article describes one of a series of studies designed to explore alternative interaction techniques to make object selection easier for older mouse users.
Bohan, Michael and Deborah Scarlett. Usability News (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Elderly
#21120
You might do a lot of usability testing on your web site but you still might lose up to 10% of your audience because of some simple mistakes with colors. Specifically, your web site may be designed in a way that doesn't work well for people with colorblindness. Generally the fix is quite simple: be sure to provide excellent contrast between your various web page elements.
Follansbee, Todd. WebWord (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Color
#19320
Colour is used in interface design for a variety of purposes. Not only can colour convey meaning or highlight content, it is also an important part of corporate identity and branding. Where would the Coca Cola brand be without its distinctive red and white livery? All well and good, but the reality is that the use of colour can cause more problems than it solves. Interface designers must treat colour with caution for a variety of reasons - most importantly the huge variety of ways in which any given colour can be perceived. It is well known that older users and those with colour-deficit vision may have difficulty in perceiving certain colours. Different monitors may be poor at maintaining colours the same across displays, and of course many users are still working on black and white displays. In this environment, poor use of colour may mean that text is hard to read, eyestrain occurs, and users become frustrated. With this in mind, designers should consider the following guidelines relating to the use of colour in interface design.
Gaine, Frank. Frontend Infocentre (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Color
#26849
Communication Challenges in the WC3's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 
In the first part of this article, we analyze a number of communication challenges and relate them to problems in conveying the November draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Based on our analysis, the second part of our article offers a number of recommendations for improving the comprehensibility of the WCAG 2.0 for its various intended audiences. Although our discussion has the November draft as its focal point, the recommendations are more widely applicable to other complex documents with diverse audiences. In the final part, we propose a new vision for the WCAG.
Brys, Catherine M. and Wim Vanderbauwhede. Technical Communication Online (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards
#22704
Comprendiendo la Accesibilidad
una completa guía para crear sitios Web, que consigan la conformidad con las normas federales de Estados Unidos para la accesibilidad del contenido Web
Yonaitis, Robert B. HiSoftware (2002). (Spanish) Design>Accessibility>Web Design
#19226
Computer-Mediated Communication and Disability Support: Addressing Barriers to Study
The case study reported here formed part of a linear series of studies undertaken as doctoral research at the Institute of Educational Technology of the Open University between 1994 and 1999. It explored ways in which computer-mediated conferencing (one type of computer-mediated communication [CMC]), could address barriers to study encountered by undergraduate distance learners with long-term health problems, identified by a large scale postal survey of volunteers. These problem areas include: difficulty with handwriting, academic and social isolation and fatigue, together with a need for better interactive communication with support agencies. The approach taken was designed to maximise student autonomy in relation to their studies. Thirteen participants were provided with access to the services of an on-line educational counsellor, both by e-mail and in a confidential peer group conference in the environment of a 'Virtual Campus'. The findings suggest that informal contact with the counsellor in the group environment helped to build rapport and develop confidence for these students to approach her by e-mail when more private advice or help was needed.
Debenham, Margaret. TechDis (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#20662
Recently, I was surprised to learn that about 8 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women have some form of color blindness. For some Web sites that could translate to 1 in 12 visitors. That's a larger proportion of visitors than some other groups I consider when designing Web sites. The ratio of visitors viewing the Web with only 256 colors or a 640x480 pixel screen is usually less than 5 percent these days. Now include cross-browser support, older browsers, style sheets, and JavaScript in the mix. If you consider those issues when you design Web sites, you should consider your color-blind visitors, as well.
Newman, Chuck. New Architect (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Color
#23013
Considering the User Perspective: A Summary of Design Issues
A table which indicates some accomodations web designers may choose to build into accessible websites.
Bohman, Paul. WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#19643
Could Helen Keller Read Your Page?
The 'line-at-a-time' approach of screen-reader software complicates navigation on text lines that contain multiple hyperlinks (such as navigation bars). Thus, in an ideal world, accommodating visually impaired readers would move an author to place each link on its own separate line. But individual lines for each link can make for long scrolling pages, which, in turn, compromises navigation speed for sighted readers.
Sullivan, Terry and Krystyn Manning. All Things Web (1997). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#22958
Creating Accessible Cascading Style Sheets
For years, the only way to format HTML in a visually appealing way was to use tables, even though tables were originally created to display tabular data. As the Web evolved and became more sophisticated, designers wanted to do more than just display text, they wanted to emulate printed documents. They wanted to make an artistic statement. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, tables can be used for layout without ruining the accessibility of a Web site. Yes, it's ok to use tables for layout. Still, you can take your Web design to a higher level by eliminating tables entirely. The way to do this is through CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Bohman, Paul. WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS
#22992
Macromedia Flash is a vector-based, interactive animation creation program designed to enable the addition of dynamic characters, scenes, interfaces and motion graphics animations to Web sites. Macromedia Flash materials are created using the Flash authoring program, the most recent version of which is Flash MX.
WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Flash
#22959
When we talk about the accessibility of forms, we are usually referring about their accessibility to screen readers and the visually impaired. People with other types of disabilities generally are less affected by 'faulty' forms that are missing some of the HTML accessibility features.
WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Forms
#22960
A frameset is a Web page which defines a collection of at least two other separate Web pages, which are combined in the same visual space. Visual users usually experience framesets as a cohesive entity. They can scan the contents of multiple pages all at once. Those using screen readers cannot quickly scan the contents of multiple pages. All of the content is experienced in a linear fashion, one frame at a time. Frames are not inaccessible to modern screen readers, but they can be disorienting.
WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
