»Accessibility Guidelines

Accessibility refers to making a website accessible to all websurfers, regardless of which computer, monitor or web browser a person is using. For this reason websites designed by Fast Lion Design are built to work on PCs and Macs with various screen resolutions, as well as on all of the leading web browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Google Chrome.

Websites must also be accessible to the visually impaired and handicapped. Many visually impaired and handicapped persons use screen-reading software, which reads text aloud. For these people text is experienced through their ears rather than their eyes, or through a combination of both.

Although I don't use screen-reading software, I have learned to make websites accessible for one simple reason: because it's the right thing to do.

Currently, the only accessibility law that exists in the United States requires websites created for the federal government to be accessible. But eventually laws will be passed requiring all websites to follow accessibility guidelines. So why wait? It is better to act now and follow the accessibility guidelines.

With this in mind I have been making a good faith effort to follow accessibility guidelines for the websites I have created the past three years. As a result, I include these features on every web page:

Standards-compliant code that separates structure from presentation;
Well-structured document with proper headings to organize text;
Alt and title tags to give text descriptions of images;
Resizable fonts for people who have trouble reading close up and simply want to increase the size of the words on the screen.
Recently, I've been adding "Skip to content" links at the top of pages. When websurfers use screen-reading software, which reads text aloud, they hear "Skip to content" and then they can skip down to the headline of the article. In this way, these websurfers don't have to hear the links at the top of the page reread for every page.

Accessibility of web pages is a growing and changing field, and I am doing my best to learn and apply this important aspect of design.

Feel free to contact me with your comments or suggestions. I will listen and respond ASAP.

Thanks again for stopping by Fast Lion Design.

George