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Scsi's WebKISS™ Guide #2: Why 100% Accessibility?
The major headings provided on this Web page are listed below:
NOTE: Relevant hyperlinks are included within the associated paragraphs to make your browsing session productive and all the more enjoyable.
Scsi's Commitment to 100% Accessibility
Scsi believes that everything is important when it comes to achieving valid, useful, accessible, and informative Web pages. To this end, Scsi's "Web-based Keep-It-Simple, Sonoff" document -- Scsi's WebKISS™ Guide #2 -- focuses on accessibility-related matters. In particular, the presentation is oriented toward an audience of Web site designers, owners, and any other individuals who truly will benefit by having this information spelled out for their better understanding and application to their Web site pages.
Scsi further believes that there really is no acceptable excuse for failing to address at least a reasonable number of accessibility-related issues, particularly since everyone will benefit by their presence. Carried even further, providing for accessibility is deemed mandatory for every company's Web site that is to be in compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation and Disability Act.
Considerations and Justifications Provided within the Scsi P&KT Web Site
The following headings reflect a few of the numerous considerations and justifications for making 100% accessibility a worthy design goal of this or any other Web site.
- Economic Considerations
- Practicality of Accessibility
- Compliance to Federal Mandates
- Unrestricted Choice of Navigational Methods and Tools for Accessing the Internet
- Continual Striving for Professionalism and Web Site Improvement
Economic Considerations
If your company has no governmental-related business activities, you may conclude that compliance to Federal mandates for accessibility removes the need for making accessibility a paramount concern. Why is this a shortsighted conclusion for any business organization to make? A primary concern of any business is to stay in business. If you recognize this fact, you will have to agree that this requires a commitment to making your company accessible to the widest possible audience -- especially via the Internet if you have any aspirations of significant growth of your business over both near- and long-term timeframes.
Compliance to Federal Mandates
Conversely, if your company conducts direct governmental-related business activities through its Web site(s), each such Web site is mandated to be in compliance with whatever Federal law(s) for accessibility are in effect for that governmental body. For example, in the United States of America, Section 508 applies in such cases.
Practicality of Accessibility
Whether or not there are laws associated with providing accessibility, the business-related motivations for maximizing accessibility as a Web site-based company should be viewed as reflecting a fundamental prerequisite for individuals and corporations wishing to do business via the Internet.
Examples of short sightedness
Perhaps unknowingly, however, most business Web sites continue to lock out prospective customers because they made one or more Web design decisions -- either by choice or oversight -- that inherently will limit user accessibility to their Web site's pages. Typical examples of these extremely short-sighted decisions are listed below:
- Specific Web browser(s) and/or version(s) are required.
- Specific operating system(s) are required.
- JavaScript-enabled Web browsers are required.
- ActiveX, Multimedia, Flash, animation, or plug-ins are required.
- Failure to provide keyboard-only-based Navigation
- Failure to provide balloon text (tool tips) for all (both graphics- and text-based) hyperlinks
- Failure to provide meaningful contact information (specifically stating the following: Who is the person to contact, what is the company's mailing and e-mail addresses, and what telephone number(s) to call for assistance, support, ordering, etc.)
- Failure to validate every Web page's underlying HTML source code, the associated cascading style sheet(s), and Web Accessibility (to Priority levels 1, 2, and 3, inclusive)
- Failure to provide error handling (for example, a Contingency Page for an Error 404 Page Not Found condition)
Pursuing accessibility-related Benefits
Because learning from the mistakes of others, as well as ourselves, is a natural path to meaningful, directed professional growth, the above-listed decisions are among those addressed and avoided entirely by Scsi's "Perfect 10" Web Site Standard. Consequently, the remainder of this Web page highlights some of the specific accessibility-related benefits that you will come to recognize and appreciate as being direct consequences of the underlying design of the Scsi P&KT Web site.
A logical "view from the top down" perspective is the starting point
As used here, Logic [L] equates to the union of four World Class Level Web Site Design Components -- Accessibility [A], Web Standards [W], Findability [F], and Usability [U].
To illustrate this starting point graphically and emphasize its nature as being the core for all that follows, a Venn diagram provided below reveals how Logic [L] is the very foundation for Scsi's "AWFUL" design approach -- where "A+W+F+U+L" serves as a mneumonic for each of the five letters shown in brackets above:
Unrestricted Choice of Navigational Methods and Tools for Accessing the Internet
As confirmation of having successfully overcoming each of the aforementioned Web design restrictions commonly found among other business Web sites, here are the corresponding accessibility-driven features -- comprising only a portion of Scsi's "Perfect 10" Web Site Standard (not surprisingly) -- provided for you to enjoy while browsing this Web site's pages:
- Use any Web- or Text-based Browser(s) and/or Version(s) -- Refer to Best Practice #2: Every Web page is viewable with any type of browser
- Use any Operating System(s) -- because only 100% "plain vanilla" HTML source code statements are used.
- No JavaScript enabling is ever required -- because only 100% "plain vanilla" HTML source code statements are used.
- No ActiveX, Multimedia, Flash, animation, or Plug-ins (save for Adobe Acrobat Reader) are ever required.
- Use Keyboard and/or Pointer Tools in any combination to navigate throughout the entire Web site -- Refer to Best Practice #4: Every Web page's navigation always remains under user control, thereby allowing use of any combination of keyboard, mouse, or other pointing devices as hyperlink selection tools.
- Balloon Text (Tool Tips) are provided for every text- or graphics-based hyperlink on every Web page -- Refer to Best Practice #3: Every Web page incorporates meaningful, descriptive 'balloon help' text for every hyperlink (both text- and graphics-based).
- Meaningful Contact Information is provided on every Web page -- Refer to Best Practice #9: Every Web page incorporates readily accessible contact information.
- Validation of the Underlying HTML Source Code, Cascading Style Sheets, and Accessibility (Priority Levels 1, 2, and 3 inclusive) is performed and provided for user confirmation testing on every Web page -- Refer to Best Practice #10: Every Web page validates the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications for Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and Web Content Guidelines (WCAG).
- A Contingency Page is provided -- should the situation ever arise -- that will graciously handle any "Page Not Found" (Error 404) condition. NOTE: To "force" this specific page to appear, select the hyperlink Contingency Page, examine the resulting Contingency Page and its contents, and choose from among the listed options for recovery from just such a situation.
Continual Striving for Professionalism and Web Site Improvement
Scsi knows from experience that for a Web site to remain useful, it must be continually re-examined and improved upon. Accomplishing this depends greatly upon receiving user feedback, criticisms, and additional inputs from individual visitors as to what is still needed, what can be re-addressed to make it better, and anything else that might be standing in the way of getting the job done more effectively, efficiently and completely.
Web Page Validation and Contact Information
This Scsi's WebKISS™ Guide #2: Why 100% Accessibility? Page was last updated, validated -- to assure full conformance to W3C's XHTML 1.0 Strict, CSS, and WCAG Accessibility (Priorities 1, 2, and 3, inclusive) recommendations --and uploaded on Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 2:25 p.m. EDT by Raymond Sonoff, President of Sonoff Consulting Services, Inc., 271 Saxony Drive, Crestview Hills, KY 41017 USA: Telephone: (859) 261-5908.
Remember: If you have some questions to ask, wish to request additional information about specific topics, or want to send a request for proposal, Scsi will always welcome your inquiries and respond promptly -- often the very same day -- to your e-mail communications. -- 
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