Usability vs. accessibility, Win --

Usability vs. accessibility, Win -- Any website / web application should be accessible and best practices for usability, right? Wrong.Though this is an admirable goal to reach accessibility standards optimal usability is not always profitable. The two are not always together. Sure, enough, well-formed, semantic HTML output, and although the structure of content, most of the work to meet the two objectives of accessibility and usability, but from time to time there is a sea saw effect. If you are rich interactive elements to ensure the usability and improve the usability of your design potential, it is possible that you are also making it less accessible design. What are the questions we should ask when planning a new feature to a website or web application? The following are some of mine. 'It is able to access impact? "We need to determine if our new feature of having a negative impact on the accessibility of content. This may be due, for example, user interactions, click on a link to the page to download new content from the server and puts them in the middle of some of the existing content. Blind browser that can not register the new content there. "We really need this?" If you can not justify the interactive elements as essential, then it makes little sense, the time and effort to build something that actually affect the value of contents. In many cases, it may be assumed that a function is not necessarily important that the contents of a competitive advantage by focusing on mass. What is good, I made enough efforts over the years in doing things just because it is "cool" to see the stagnation that occurs when you do not try to push the limits from time to time. "We can make easily accessible," There are existing technologies that allow us to take advantage of new features and maintain the necessary degree of accessibility? Find the path of least resistance is always a good exercise. If you find a solution, you may need the functionality of your function or the degree of easy accessibility, but the saving of time and effort may be worth it. "How accessible is it necessary?" The public can influence the amount of effort, if at all, you need accessibility. From a purist point of view, this is blasphemy, all web content must be accessible. From the perspective of businesses, there is perhaps a good example for non-Guidelines for accessibility. A friend of mine has worked with some marketing materials for a major automobile manufacturer. He told me that their position on the Web Content Accessibility was "blind people do not buy cars." Callosum This seems at first sight, but if you think about it, the necessary work to ensure that all web content accessible to blind people is probably not the retu is a value in relation to the blind score. This is one of the unprofitable enterprises perspective.It 's a' myopic view (if you will pardon the pun) may be accessed by users to access content from mobile devices. Web-enabled mobile phones and PDAs in these days, but if the content is not displayed correctly on a small screen, you can tu off most potential users are not just people with disabilities. "We have no right?" If you're only sharing with automated accessibility testing, then your work is not as difficult as the software validation can not detect if the dynamically generated div with XMLHTTP imported content is crucial for the use of the website. The noscript tag in the page will probably see that your confirmation page, but this is not really in the sense of the matter is that? So what's the final result? In an article for Digital Web Magazine, PP Koch writes: "The delicate balance between accessibility and usability more thought. At the moment I see no answer, only a few issues, one can rule, and a potential danger. The rule is "Accessibility is not just the usability." "In general, this is a good starting point, but it is somewhat 'too clean and tidy view of the mass of the complications and assumptions, which it represents. The issues of accessibility and usability in web design, in my opinion still too immature to belt with rules of thumb. Until we are no longer willing to compromise between our guidelines for accessibility and usability extensions so we need to evaluate each piece of content on its merits.For now at least, a draw.David Kinsella is currently responsible for the content strategist KMP Interactive Marketing & , Technology, and runs his blog, Web Developer 2.0, the web and trends of technology development.