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"Accessibility" is defined, in the strictest sense, as the ability for a person to access something. In practice, it is a person's ability to access an organization's products, services, or other resources. This "access" is often taken for granted by able-bodied persons. We walk stairs, open doors, reach things on high shelves, and watch TV each night without thinking of the challenges other people may face doing those exact same things.
Nowhere is this truer than today's Web, where billions of people each day travel the Internet browsing web sites for information & entertainment, downloading and viewing movies & music, and communicating with one another. With the Web at our fingertips, we can learn, share, and create. Kids research their homework assignments, moms find recipes, and vacationers book their flights.
Now, close your eyes. How do you find the information you're looking for? How do you type a web site's address in the address bar? How do you click a web site's links when you can't see where the mouse is pointing? How do you read what's on the page with your eyes closed? Imagine for a moment that this is your everyday reality. Some people, when faced with this challenge, might say "I'd just not use the computer", but you can't avoid the computer because for you, your job IS to go from website to website looking for information. Your name is "Googlebot" - the automated user-agent traveling the web indexing page after page after page on the web.
There's just one problem: Googlebot is also a blind user. Googlebot can't see images, can't navigate JavaScript-driven menus, can't index Flash, can't see movies, and can't use Java Applets. Inaccessible design isn't just inaccessible for humans, but search engines as well!
For many people, accessibility is a real issue, not to be marginalized by discussions of anything other than ethics. Their feeling is that an organization's resources should enable equal access by all merely because it is the right thing to do. The reality, however, is that it has taken an act of Congress for employers to care about brick & mortar accessibility. Electronic Accessibility is only law for procurements by the federal government. So, apart from ethics and legal mandate, which haven't reached most of the private sector, what impetus is there for a move toward accessible design? Googlebot.
Among the many responses we hear by those who are resistant to accessibility are "We don't have that many blind customers", or "Those customers are free to call us and we will gladly help them". Clearly, these responses are based on ignorance - not only of what "Equal Access" really is, but of the side-benefits that can be had with accessible design. Among them: greater search engine positioning.
Web Access Strategies can help you help your clients. Our staff of accessibility specialists is available to assist your team in ensuring that your excellent web work is accessible for all users, including Googlebot. We are available for training, consulting, review, and remediation.
Author:
Karl Groves
| Date Added: Friday, October 05, 2007
Categories:
Accessibility SEO | Rated: 
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