Why is Accessibility important for your website?
In recent years as the net has become more engrained in our everyday life the issue of accessibility has become more and more prominent. It is estimated that 6% of the population is visually impaired. Add to that people that are also deaf / hard of hearing and people with cognitive/learning disabilities. That’s a large portion of the populous.

We also need to consider the people that browse the Internet using mobile devices, people that don’t have the latest browser and/or plugins, people that browse without graphics and those that don’t have speakers. Add to that people living in rural or remote areas with limited connectivity to the Internet, let alone broadband.

Having an accessible website is of benefit to both the user and the provider. Users will have access to required information / services / products and contact information. Providers will have a larger target audience, better reputation, easier to use website and depending on where you live, conforming to legal requirements.
We really need to look at things from the point of view of those with disabilities.

For example 14% of the population is classified as having some sort of disability. A big portion of those will come across some sort of a barrier in accessing the web. To eliminate the portion of people from accessing your site is from a moral point of view, simply wrong and from a commercial point of is disastrous.

What can be done to help?
One of the biggest things a web design company can do is make your website work correctly on all common browsers, i.e. Internet Explorer 6, 7 & 8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera. Other easy to implement features would be re-sizable text, large easy to find navigation bar, and clear, easy-to-follow instructions and of course a consistent layout.

Make sure your website is W3C compliant. W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and they have produced a minimum standard for code that makes it easier to render your website on different browsers and devices.

Use your “alt” tags correctly. If you have an image as a button and it contains text, give a short concise description. The longer your alt tags the longer it will take somebody with a screen reader to navigate through your page.

Consider a mobile version of your website. The number of people browsing the web from mobile devices has gone through the roof in the past 18 months, especially since the introduction of the iPhone. Once you have your main website up and running it is relatively easy to create a mobile version which can automatically detect when you’re browsing using a mobile device and display the site appropriately.

With a little bit of effort and some consideration we can make your website open to a lot more people. We do not have to steer clear of JavaScript, Flash or other rich Multimedia features, we just need to provide an alternative option. Let the users have the choice!

What can Lucidity do to help?


  • All the websites we are now building are W3C compliant.
  • Our sites work on all major web browsers.
  • If you website is not currently WC3 compliant we offer a service to convert it from its current format into a more friendly one.
  • We can create mobile versions of your website.
  • Part of our web design ethos is to create sites that are easy to use.