Since 2005, European legislation has required EU websites to take reasonable steps to improve disability rights access.
A common myth about Accessibility is that it caters to an insignificant minority. According to the RNIB, Tesco.com gained £13 MILLION a year in new business by making its site accessible site.
While it may be great to get more business like Tesco.com, the real truth about accessibility is much more subtle — and valuable.
Right now there is one class of “blind” web users who have TRILLIONS of dollars at their disposal and can influence entire societies. They will never “see” the elegant roll-over navigations and have no interest in colour combinations. And they’re not in the slightest bit worried about flashy animations or clever scripting.
They are the Search Engines — Google, Yahoo, Windows Live! and Ask, to name just four.
The unspoken truth about Accessibility is that it is perfect for SEO. All the “best practice” techniques aimed at making the Internet experience good for people who cannot see hold doubly true for the Search Engine Spiders.
An example of this is related by spoonfed.co.uk, a London listings website which discovered that content it syndicated to other websites appeared in Google HOURS before the same stories featured on their own pages. Quite simply, the syndicated sites were using more Accessible designs.
How you can use CSS to improve Accessibility AND Content is the subject of my next post.
