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User Accessibility |
How is a web designer to determine if their web site is designed so that maximum access is provided for users? What is meant by this is- does the web site design account as much as possible for different users, different browsers & settings, and different viewing devices, etc.?
Some users are visually impaired, and cannot read small font sizes and fancy styles. Some users turn off the "display graphics" option in their browser, so if there is no alternative text for graphics they may not know how to navigate your site, or what it's about. Users are viewing web pages on an increasing variety of devices, from 21" high resolution LCD monitors to small cell phone and PDA displays.
There is an excellent online resource for testing if a web site meets such user accessibility guidelines, called Bobby. Online, you can test one web page at a time for free by typing in it's URL, clicking a button, and get a report back fairly quickly detailing problems on the page; this only works for actual, hosted web pages that are available on the Internet.
There is also the option of purchasing Bobby for desktop use during the development of a web page/site. The author of this site did not spend the money on that, so the user may find it interesting to test this site's pages using Bobby, as well as any other site's pages you're interested in.
The Bobby web site also has great user accessibility guidelines, and is just a terrific resource.
To use Bobby, click on the link below (opens in new window)