Comments on: Accessible web design – The Whats and Whys

By: Eric T

Eric T — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:27:56 +0000

Awesome article, so much stuff I never knew. Thanks Redswish.

By: nathan

nathan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:05:55 +0000

@Nancy, of course we can’t blame the schools but they sure aren’t helping! I’ll head over and check out your site now. Plus good point on the ’skip to content’ – don’t let client’s bully you!

@Andy Couch, thank you. I’m so used to saying either for the same thing I often forget their origins and true definitions. Noted and changed.

Nathan

By: Andy Couch

Andy Couch — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:35:19 +0000

Minor correction: Tim Berners-Lee is credited for inventing the World Wide Web, not the Internet.

By: Nancy O.

Nancy O. — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:51:35 +0000

I can’t place all the blame on the schools. For the record, I am a big proponent of web accessibility and best practices. My site and blog have several articles on this topic. I do not charge extra for this BTW. But I would like to charge extra the next time an ignorant client tells me to remove ’skip to content’ links from site pages because he “doesn’t want people to use them” and they don’t “fit in with the design scheme.” Arrrgh!

By: Semantic Markup and Accessibility Standards - An overview | New Age Design

Semantic Markup and Accessibility Standards - An overview | New Age Design — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:21:34 +0000

[...] If anything in this article is confusing you, then I recommend you refer to Nathan’s post on Accessible Web Design for a more broad [...]

By: nathan

nathan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:45:26 +0000

Well that’s just the problem Darren, the fact that still, nearly a decade after people started pushing towards a better understanding of web standards and accessibility, it’s still very much misunderstood or people are still learning the wrong way.

As James and Clay pointed out above – web design teachers in schools, colleges and even universities (in terms of the English educational system) who learned HTML and general web design years ago are teaching it incorrectly today.

Therefore students are coming out with what they think is a good understanding of web design but really have no idea about the ethics and importance of everything mentioned above.

4 years too late? On the contrary, I think this article is just as important now as it would have been 4 years ago.

By: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:14:43 +0000

Great article but about published about 4yrs too late. It shocks me to think this is new to web developers.

By: redswish - a web design blog » Accessible web design - The How

redswish - a web design blog » Accessible web design - The How — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:17:03 +0000

[...] the predecessor to this article, ‘Accessible web design – the whats and whys‘, I discussed the advantages of building accessible websites, what accessibility is and why [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:09:43 +0000

Well said Nathan. I was just writing about this sort of thing the other day actually. I agree that accessibility should not cost any more, since it should be part of our design/process. I have seen many times that other designers are trying to charge more for accessibility. Ludicrous

By: Jim Fuller

Jim Fuller — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:06:29 +0000

excellent overview … note there is also a ‘broken windows’ concept to creating accessible software in that it typically makes the software more usable for all people (not just folks with some disabilities). This is what I say to those clients who are morally disabled