Disability Issues in website design
At www.sitemaker1.com we design websites which are uncluttered and easy to use. Not only is this good for able visitors, but it is desirable for disabled visitors also. Many robots, particularly the search engine robots will be trawling your website on a regular basis and the simpler your site is, the higher the ranking it will be given in that engine. This, in turn will make your site more easily found.
We avoid databases, Flash and certain types of Java code because although these effects can look good on a website, the search engine robot cannot read in to them. Wherever possible we try to incorporate the following principles :-
- Navigation should be easy and a site map is essential
- We use graphics, images, and pictures to break up text, while bearing in mind that graphics and tables may take longer to download
- We provide text captions for graphics and ensure that the main point of graphs and tables is given in text as well
- Large graphics make pages harder to read, so we put them in at a reasonable size with a "click to enlarge" option. This makes a larger graphic available for people of restricted sight, whilst optimising download times.
- Moving text creates problems for people with visual impairments and dyslexia. It is also incompatible with screen reader software.
- Most users prefer dark print on a pale background. Colour preferences vary
- Some websites offer a choice of background colours
- We encourage the use of hyperlinks wherever possible
- Often we avoid green, red and pink as these are difficult for colour-blind individuals
- We offer advice as to how you can configure your machine for different text sizes, mouse pointers and other standard options given by Microsoft in their Windows operating system.
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