From the beginning itself, the whole idea of a website has been to provide information in any form or kind. Web Standards from the W3C, state that all websites should provide any and all information they want to, in a user friendly and accessible manner. “Accessibility” being the keyword of this post, we delve into some checks that you should check your website against, to ascertain your websites accessibility. Accessibility for all, even the physically challenged!

Checks for a website quicky!

1. Alt tags for all objects and images

Ok, the first check we would do is check our website for all objects and images having an ALT tag with suitable description or information about the object or image. To do this, Use a browser like Internet Explorer and place your cursor on any informational image on your website or objects on your website and wait, let the cursor hover, you will notice a yellowish tag, explaining the image. For e.g. If its your company logo, it should contain your company name, other info you might want to add. If the image is only a part of the document formation or web design, you can definitely use it for the website description or keywords; it only will boost your on site SEO. ALT tags also display the text enclosed within them, when the image cannot load or the browser does not support images, for e.g. Lynx!

2. Subtitles for Video based content

Have your ever seen a movie or video without audio? Thats how physically challenged person would be watching it! So if you can afford to put up subtitles in your videos, believe me it will go a lonnng way!! No subtitles? Ok, so provide a transcript most biggies like Download.com, Cnet.com, etc provide this feature. These websites display transcripts of the video. Unlike video, its transcripts can also be converted into any language using Google translation tools! Again these transcripts also elevate content and will only boost your onsite SEO too!

3. Forms check

Check your forms. Many of us leave our forms the way they are, empty, single and unexplainable! Contrary to what might you guys think, web forms are on the front line where Customer Relationship Management is concerned. So pay attention to forms. Display text next to the input objects so as to clearly mention what you want the user to input. Also make sure, while entering values in the form, the “tab” key should be used as the standard keyboard navigation key. You can read all about web contact forms here!

4. Resizing text

Sure, many standard browsers do have the feature of changing text size as per users default requirement, but that does not mean you don’t give an option to users to change the text size! Use CSS to provide for an interface and mechanism where a user can change text sizes to view your browser! Also note the effects on your website layout/design, when fonts are changed. Remember, its all about accessibility.

5. Use Lynx!

As stated above, Lynx is CUI or character user interface based browser. Lynx mainly only displays text and links. It cannot render frames, iframes, objects and image tags. So make sure you check your websites appearance in Lynx. Most search engine crawlers look at your website as lynx does, so it will go only to your advantage if you check your website against Lynx!

6. Website with a mouse!?

Yes! Your website should be accessible with your mouse. Users should be able to navigate without using their mouse! This only goes to make sure you care about your business or your personal website and look at it as serious tool for communication, advertising, support related relations with your visitors!

7. Make sense of text links!

Make sure that all your text links on the website, precisely describe where your visitor will be and what he can expect when he ore she clicks on the said link. Again text links, ideally should not be more the 3-5 words! The less words the better!

8. Auto check website!

There are plenty of programs available on the internet that will check all webpages on your website for miscellaneous problems. They won’t be checking for accessibility, but more so syntax, design, visitors and more. Two of these freely available programs are WebXact and Wave. WebXACT is from IBM and checks for web security. Wave on the other hand deals with the basics of website accessiblity and checks your website for some set standards. I would suggest you use both.

9. Sitemaps

Make sure you have two versions of the sitemaps for every website you own, design and deliver. One in HTML for your visitors and the second one in XML, which would be compatible with the standards stated over at Sitemap.org and can be crawled by Yahoo, Google and Live! Sitemaps boost your websites accessibility and visibility where visitors and search engines, both are concerned!

Website Accessibility Resources

WebXACT@ http://www-01.ibm.com/software/rational/offerings/websecurity/
Wave@ http://wave.webaim.org//
Sitemap Standards@ http://www.sitemaps.org
Free Sitemap Generator@ http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
Lynx Website Viewer@ http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html