Web Accessibility

Happy new year!!!

And guess who has reprimanded himself for sloppy blogging and has committed himself to more regular posts?? Well it's easier than going to the gym!

Interesting article on the BBC website today - apparently 10% of all websites are not accessible .... you don't say!!!

For as long as I remember we have banged the accessibility drum at Eazytiger. We certainly aim to have all sites accessible in all browsers, operating systems and devices, and only where serious technical issues limit the commercial reality of this dream do we compromise. And by compromise i mean move an item a few pixels, or change the design slightly to accommodate. It seems the world is cottoning on to the fact that Microsoft only supplies 85% of web browsers and that this is being eroded steadily.

It's interesting that most web designers design for IE, and commercially quite sensible if you are playing the quantity game - design as many sites in a week as you can and just get them out there - stack them high sell them cheap mentality. Our philosophy is quite different and summed up in 3 words - quality, quality, quality ... initially built to web standards (W3C) our sites will render in any standards compliant device. We then test in IE6 and 7, which aren't standards compliant but form the vast majority of browsers.

By taking this alternative route we can ensure a greater degree of future friendliness for our sites as the standards that they comply with are adopted by new devices and browsing environments.

The link to the full article is here .... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4115806.stm

Enjoy! And if you have an Eazytiger site - sit back and have a well deserved coffee for a great decision that you've just had another reason to feel ever so slightly smug about!!

Speak soon,
Gary McCarthy.