When designing the for the web, another important aspect to consider is accessibility. Making websites that are able to be accessed by all people, including those with disabilities is good practice. Making an accessible site is not difficult to do, but is often overlooked by designers and developers.
If you already have a site up and didn’t consider accessibility in the design and development, there are a few things that you can do right off the bat that will go along way towards making it available to all users.
When using images, be sure to include alt tags to describe the visual function. Otherwise, the visually impaired would have no way of knowing what the image is supposed to be.
Also related to visual impairment, when hyperlinking, using text that makes sense when read out of context is good practice. For example, avoid “click here” and provide a description of what the link actually is for.
When including audio and video in a site, consider the hearing impaired. Providing captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video will make it more accessible for all.
Those are just a few simple things that can be done. There are plenty of resources available on the web regarding accessibility and what you should do to make your sites and designs accessible. One of the best places to start is the W3C site. Another handy resource is Six Revisionspost about tools for evaluating web design accessibility.
