Accessibility matters

With the advent of XML and XSL, the implementation of multi-channel sites - including accessible channels - has never been easier.

Although much of the public sector has implemented, and indeed pioneered accessibility techniques on web sites, many private sector organisations are still spending large percentages of their web budgets on the creation of image-enhancing flash animations. Although image has been, and inevitably will always be key to a company's brand, so should the ethics of consideration and inclusion.

There are many articles on the web detailing accessibility techniques, here is a summary of some of the most important points:

• Links should be named so that they still have meaning when removed from their position within the page.
  
  
• Images should be assigned useful alt tags.
  
  
• The main content on the screen should use a proportional CSS style, rather than a fixed font.
  
  
• Use colours, animation and sound carefully.
  
  
• Provide important multimedia content in alternative formats.
  
  
• Avoid pop-up windows and frames.
  
  
• Implement advanced HTML accessibility tags where possible, including accesskeys and longdesc attributes.