[1] Web Design for Maximum Accessibility:
Just as there are design considerations in planning a physical facility that will accommodate users with disabilities, the same is true for designing a website. Specifically, we have addressed the following issues in the creation of this Information Service:
To accommodate users with visual impairment, we've selected bold colors and color combinations for the text, background, and graphic images on our pages, with sufficient contrast to enhance visibility without excessive harshness.
Studies have shown that a pastel background, such as we use, tends to cause less visual fatigue during extended usage than a white or bright color background — for all users.
Also, to accommodate users who may have seizure disorders, we have refrained from excessive use of "flash" technology, pop-up ads, and rapidly moving graphic animations, which studies have shown can occasionally trigger seizures for some people.
Yes, we realize our site design might seem a little "tame" to a few children and hard-core video gamers, who usually tend to prefer something a little more dramatic.
However, our own research with disabled internet users (and those who care for them) has shown that a "tamer" website design tends to be preferred by most internet users over age 30, whether or not they are visually impaired.
An intuitive approach to logical organization of the information on the site provides an extremely user-friendly interface. Users can quickly access what they need with minimal scrolling and fewer mouse-clicks.
Great care has also been taken to make the site more usable by those with orthopedic impairment (such as arthritis, joint injuries, or soft tissue injuries), coordination impairment and learning disabilities.
Our navigational menus are divided into a series of separate small pages, very different from the conglomeration of cascading pop-up menus we see so often these days.
We've received feedback from our own Staff Members as well as users of our Service that cascading menus are confusing for people with learning disabilities, and extremely difficult to use by people with orthopedic or coordination impairment of their "mouse hand."
Apparently some webmasters seem to feel the need to get everything they possibly can onto a single page, regardless of how much the user has to scroll. We have not done that.
Where it makes sense, we use brightly colored button links for navigation rather than text links in most areas of our site for the same reasons. The buttons are easily identifiable as "links" and present larger targets that are easier to hit with a mouse cursor.
To accommodate users with older systems or slower dial-up connections, our page sizes are intentionally kept small with minimal graphics so individual pages load quickly, and to minimize the risk of "time-outs" and connection failures. This makes our Information Service usable by the widest possible audience.
And of course, all of our navigational buttons and graphic images are clearly labeled with "alternative text" to accommodate those using text readers as well as provide additional information for our users.
Where we do use text links, they are a bright purple rather than the standard blue, which provides better contrast against our "easy on the eyes" light cyan (blue-green) page background. And our text links still do turn a bright red when a cursor passes over them ("mouseovers").
We are constantly endeavoring to improve our service. If you have suggestions or comments you feel would be helpful, write to us:
webmaster@barrierfreechoices.com
