The National Library for the Blind

Designing accessible websites Joanna Widdows David Egan

Design For All nAccessible design is good design for all nVisual impairment (VI) and the Web: l VI: a continuum

How do visually impaired people access the web? nMagnification nRefreshable Braille nSpeech synthesis

Why Bother? n Social Inclusion n Best Value n DDA n E-Government

Myths and Tips  Text version of site is essential 4Good sites can include more than just text

Myths and Tips  Frames must not be used 4 Give frames titles 4 Use ‘no frames’ version

Myths and Tips  Tables must not be used 4 Avoid the use of tables for layout 4 Use necessary markup to describe tables

Myths and Tips  Images must be avoided 4 Give all images alt text 4 Give imagemaps text links

Myths and Tips  Flash and Javascript must not be used 4 Offer alternatives for Javascript, applets, flash plug-ins

Myths and Tips  PDF must not be used 4Make Access Adobe available for PDF files -

Myths and Tips  Bobby is all you need 4 Use Bobby, other tools and human evaluation

More Tips 4 Make the text legible 4 make the design flexible 4 Provide a site map [preferably at the bottom of the screen]

…and more  Multiple links can make navigation difficult

4 Make sure links make sense out of context

The proof of the pudding... Some examples of good and bad practice

NLB Consultancy Interactive Initiatives n Co-ordinated by Interactive Initiatives n Developing NLB charter mark n