Case Study: Designing for Web Accessibility

There is still a large percentage of web resources that are inaccessible to many individuals. The authors previously developed a meta-method for evaluating the accessibility of existing web resources and now feel there is a need to provide advice on designing for accessibility during the development lifecycle. Despite the large quantity of resources on accessible design now available, there is still a shortage of practical information for web developers on the steps to be taken towards implementation. More importantly, it is difficult to ascertain where exactly to place accessibility within the developer’s successful, structured development lifecycle. This paper details a series of steps used by the authors to provide some structure to designing their web resource t o be accessible. These steps include using existing tools and techniques and combines this with what the authors call “accessible sense”.