Comments on: Accessiblity and SEO: or, why accessible websites are not for the disabled http://www.magicposition.com/2007/05/31/accessiblity-and-seo-or-why-accessible-websites-are-not-for-the-disabled/ Don't just build websites: develop the web. Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:08:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: The Magic Position: Widgets for beginners, web development for pros. » Blog Archive » Search Accessibility: a how-to http://www.magicposition.com/2007/05/31/accessiblity-and-seo-or-why-accessible-websites-are-not-for-the-disabled/comment-page-1/#comment-3 The Magic Position: Widgets for beginners, web development for pros. » Blog Archive » Search Accessibility: a how-to Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:08:49 +0000 http://www.magicposition.com/?p=5#comment-3 [...] The Magic Position: Widgets for beginners, web development for pros. « Accessiblity and SEO: or, why accessible websites are not for the disabled [...] [...] The Magic Position: Widgets for beginners, web development for pros. « Accessiblity and SEO: or, why accessible websites are not for the disabled [...]

]]> By: Jim McFadyen http://www.magicposition.com/2007/05/31/accessiblity-and-seo-or-why-accessible-websites-are-not-for-the-disabled/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Jim McFadyen Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:14:37 +0000 http://www.magicposition.com/?p=5#comment-2 Hey, I recently sat through a little Q&A/observation session with a Victor Tsaran, and had my eyes opened on the topic of Accessibility. One thing that you assumed, was something that I did also, and that is making sites work without JavaScript for screen readers. This is not really the case any longer. The larger issue is that 508 and WAI are just out of date! Screen readers are much more advanced than just tabbing through content. They can and do run some JavaScript. I actually posted about the session yesterday on my blog if you are interested. I agree with you on all the SEO, but I realized that SEO friendly is not always Accessibility friendly. Things like display:none; do not work do the same for both search and accessibility. However, I disagree that it takes that much longer to build an accessible friendly site for how the screen readers will read it. Following the specs of the 508, yes, it can add more development, but doing that does not necessarily make your site any more accessible. I feel that it is possible to build an accessible site that actually works for visually impaired users with very little more effort than just building a properly and semantically. Cheers, Jim Hey,

I recently sat through a little Q&A/observation session with a Victor Tsaran, and had my eyes opened on the topic of Accessibility. One thing that you assumed, was something that I did also, and that is making sites work without JavaScript for screen readers. This is not really the case any longer. The larger issue is that 508 and WAI are just out of date! Screen readers are much more advanced than just tabbing through content. They can and do run some JavaScript.

I actually posted about the session yesterday on my blog if you are interested.

I agree with you on all the SEO, but I realized that SEO friendly is not always Accessibility friendly. Things like display:none; do not work do the same for both search and accessibility.

However, I disagree that it takes that much longer to build an accessible friendly site for how the screen readers will read it. Following the specs of the 508, yes, it can add more development, but doing that does not necessarily make your site any more accessible. I feel that it is possible to build an accessible site that actually works for visually impaired users with very little more effort than just building a properly and semantically.

Cheers,
Jim

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