If you are reading this Post, which is a slight departure from my normal offering, its all about building accessible websites for people with disabilities.
You can take a tour of my brand new amazing mobile device friendly website at here.
This is an issue that is close to my heart as person with severe sight loss, being able to access information on the internet has become an unwritten human right. Don’t worry I’m not going to go off on one, just wanting you to realise that it is something that most people without disabilities take for granted. There is a minefield of conflicting information out there floating around in the either telling us what we must do, how we must do it, but it neglects one piece of straightforward advice I can give to anyone – think about your audience and their needs. What difficulties are they having accessing the web. Then to use a good NLP technique, junk up. By addressing the more detailed access issues like being able to make the text bigger or changing to an inverted screen as I have done, think of the many other people who you did not intend to help who will now enjoy reading your website.
I have already received great feedback from Steve Nutt, a blind business owner of Computer Room Services. He found no issue using his screen reader to access my site.
Another simple thing to consider is using a easy to read font and using a sensible size of font. Also, remember that many people with eye conditions and learning difficulties, such as Dyslexia find good contrast, text size and spacing crucial.
Now this is not a long Post because I want to make sure it is read until the end.
This is the most important bit.
Get your website to be mobile device friendly. Yes, this helps with ranking with search engines, but it also helps to access your website for people with disabilities. How many sites are truly mobile friendly? Not many, is yours? Mobile sites allow a person with severe sight loss to fit the site to the page, present the site differently using landscape on a tablet device or phone and to make text bigger using the accessibility features in your tablet or phone. Or, just use the toggle function on the right hand side of the page.
Can I just ask one favour, please take a look and let me know your honest opinions. I do listen and want to have a truly accessible website so that you can learn what I do to make a difference in other people’s lives.
I did’ have time to do all this myself and many of you won’t either. I use some fantastic web developers, Mike and Penny Jones of Outerbridge. See how they felt about this ongoing project here.
Kind regards
Chris Catt
Keep speaking out