We all want the websites that we create to attract the widest audience possible. Yet there are certain aspects of web design that can eliminate part of our potential audience. It could be problems with its functionality that turn people away from using it, little glitches that make the site frustrating to use, thankfully problems like this can be rectified with just a few tweaks of the coding. However, there are certain aspects of web design that ensure the site is accessible to all that many people seem to forget about. These are the aspects of the site that make it accessible to the broadest audience as possible and if they are not in place you could find yourself alienating your potential audience.

Defining Accessibility

For a website to be truly accessible it should be able to be viewed all of the different browsers currently available. The site should also load over any type or speed of internet connection and onto any type of browsing device. Given the number of different devices that are on the market at the moment this is often the hardest part. Designers need to remember that there are people out there that are still using dial up internet connections, slow and old computers, and ancient monitors. If a website does not load successfully within a few seconds of being selected then the audience will generally click away and look elsewhere for what they need. Accessibility also means that the site will work well with things like screen readers for the visually impaired, speech programmes for the hard of hearing or dyslexic. The colour scheme should also be thought about so that the colour blind can read the text on the page with ease. Once a page has met all of these different accessibility issues it can be considered universally accessible.

Design Elements

With so many design elements to consider getting a site just right can take time, but it is achievable. Basically in order for a site to be as accessible as possible it should not be filled full of elements that can make it difficult to load such as animations and unnecessary gadgets and gizmos, the site needs to load easily and have an easy to follow navigation system. All of the images that are uploaded onto the site need to have the appropriate alt+text description, and graphics should be avoided when it comes to adding headers and links. The use of frames should be avoided and when the user clicks onto a link it should not be designed that it automatically opens a new page.

All of these elements will make the site cleaner and faster loading and much easier to navigate. One of the biggest benefits of making your site universally accessible is that it can reach many more users than sites where accessibility has not been considered. As such it is likely to turn more hits into conversions and boost business far more than an all singing, all dancing gadget laden flash site.

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