Web Site Accessibility Blog

Courtesy: Good Experience Blog

The number one reason to build an accessible website (or to be accessible, no matter what the subject): You lose money, and potential customers have bad experiences.

Good Experience Blog shows an experience at Bloomingdales when a father with a stroller asks a store clerk if there is an elevator. The clerk replies: “No. There’s an escalator over there.”

Why is this customer experience broken? Let me count the the ways.

• Bloomingdale’s, a major retailer spread across many floors, has only one elevator accessible from its Lexington Avenue entrance.

• The clerk, upon seeing a customer in need, suggests an irrelevant solution and then goes back to work.

• There is no acknowledgment that this is an inconvenience - not the clerk, not even the sign. Customers who can’t climb stairs or stand on an escalator - customers in wheelchairs, parents with strollers - are just out of luck.

This could be humorous, if it weren’t so despicable and thoughtless:

A wheelchair ramp goes to a landing with more stairs at a courthouse in St. Petersburg, Florida. Unfortunately, I have experienced these types of situations with family members who have been in wheelchairs.

How many websites do you know of that provide just enough accessibility to get to the inaccessible features?

Matt Bailey, founder of the AccessibilityBlog.com, will present an Accessibility and Usability training class in London. The four-hour class will take place on February 22nd from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Business Design Center, 52 Upper Street, Islington.

The class will focus on the development of accessible,yet usable websites. Many times, organizations focus on the accessibility of a website or intranets, yet overlook the aspects of usability. In some cases, programming meant to improve usability may be contradictory to user expectations. User testing, practical applications, and case studies will be presented and discussed.

The class is offered in conjunction with the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Training Classes. The Search Conference will be held from the 19th-21st, with intensives offered on the 22nd. Bailey will also be speaking on Search-Friendly Design in the Tuesday session.

Matt Bailey is president and founder of SiteLogic Marketing and an internationally recognized authority on search engine marketing, website analytics, usability, and accessibility. As a consulting and training company, SiteLogic focuses on helping organizations and site owners take control of their websites and their web marketing plans.

With over a decade in the web marketing industry, Matt excels in combining his marketing background with programming know-how to help companies create comprehensive strategies that improve internet presence and profitability.

Sought after worldwide as a seminar presenter and teacher; Matt speaks regularly for The Direct Marketing Association; Search Engine Strategies Conferences and Training; the American Advertising Federation, and private training seminars. Matt is known for his conversational, entertaining speaking style and his ability to make technical topics both understandable and practical.

Matt oversees The Direct Marketing Association’s SEO Training Program and is the trainer for the DMA’s Web Marketing Seminar. He has consulted with hundreds of companies and government agencies.

You can register and find more information at the Search Engine Strategies website.

Target loses an appeal of the class action status of the Lawsuit brought by the National Federation of the Blind. Target had appealed the class-action status of the suit to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The petition was denied and the lawsuit will proceed “on behalf of all Americans.”

This seems to be some of the last challenges to the suite that Target has brought. The actual case has yet to begin, as Target has challenged many of the aspects of the case, the class-action status being the latest. It should be interesting to see when a court date is set, or if this will even get to court.

ON a related note, the NFB and Amazon.com announced that Amazon.com will be accessible to blind users by June 30, 2008.

Source: NFB Press Release

Nielson Group offers research data as a gift for the New Year.

Jacob Nielson, whom I have long admired for his excellent research into web usability, is offering a fantastic PDF report for free on his website. I am not sure if this is a limited time offer, so go download it NOW.

The report addresses factors that are usually overlooked when companies create accessible websites – usability. Having first-hand experience with testing accessible yet unusable designs and programming, this document is a must read. Simply creating a website that is accessible does not make a website easy to use. In some cases it can make it more difficult. Often overlooked, usability is a prime component of accessibility. While most people focus on the physical aspects of accessibility, there are also the cognitive aspects where people need the site to be simple, consistent, and understandable.

Bottom line: Being technically accurate in accessibility is great for machines, but not always good for users.

Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users With Disabilities
75 Best Practices for Design of Websites and Intranets, Based on Usability Studies with People Who Use Assistive Technology