People with limited vision
People with limited vision should be able to adjust the size of text using the settings built into their browser software. Sites such as this one allow the user to change the size of the text without loosing the format of the page. For this reason words are text and not images as in some websites.
People with colour blindness
Colour blindness such as the common red/ green blindness may effect 10% of the population - which is a lot of people to exclude from your site. This site and well designed sites will ensure that colour combinations are visible to as many people as possible.
Screen readers
By using style sheets and access keys it is possible for a screen reader to be used - allowing people with little of no vision to access your website.
Legislation and guidelines
Accessibility may be the subject of legislation in different jurisdictions. Your school may have policies in place.
The UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 requires that organisations with a website do not discriminate against certain users.
The W3C - including the founder of the web Tim Berners-Lee - have started the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which aims to set out guidelines for accessible and flexible websites over which the user has control.
...read more about
www.w3.org/wai (external link - opens in new window)
In the United States Section 508 was appended
to the Rehabilitation Act in 1999 with the aim of removing barriers within Information Technology and ensuring accessibility within government agencies.
...
read more about www.section508.gov (external link - opens
Browser support and low bandwidth
Remember that not everyone will access your site on fast of broadband connections. The use of CSS creates small files and faster downloads as does the careful use of images, and optional Photo galleries allow the choice as to whether or not to view. Your website should be compatible with most browsers for example Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and Opera. Users need to be able to change the size of text and even select high contrast options. All sites designed by us are created and tested to ensure compatibility with a range of browsers in different configurations, and give users control over such things as text size.
