Accessibility and Usability

[ICAT4183A - Confirm Accessibility of Websites for people with special needs]
[ICAT4184A - Ensure Site Usability for full range of users]

The accessibility and usability of websites to people including those with disabilities is becoming more important.
As well as a moral obligation to allow access for all there are now legal requirements relating to website accessibility for business and government websites.
This follows on from Australia's famous SOCOG case which achieved international recognition on the need to make Government websites accessible.


Exercise

Olympic Failure read Tom Worthington's review of the SOCOG case.


Also remember Google is effectively a 'blind' user when it accesses your pages to add them to its database.
Do you really want to make it difficult for Google to search your website ?

Accessibility versus Usability

There is often confusion between Accessibility and Usability.
A useful definition is

Accessibility - ensuring information is physically retrievable
Usability - ensuring the information is retrieved in an easy and simplified manner


Exercise

"You must include the alt attribute when using the image tag so you can see the text when the mouse is over the image, its an accessibility issue."
Instruction given by an unnamed tutor.

What is wrong with this statement ?