This page was designed to help it be accessible to people with visual disabilities. If you're a web designer and would like to know more about designing barrier-free and still create a good-looking site, What barrier-free design is and how it will help your web site.
Many of my clients these days are expressing surprise when I mention that I am designing web pages to accommodate people with disabilities. I do, but it goes way beyond that, and it includes everyone.
What your web site can look like.
I personally feel very strongly about barrier-free design, whether it's in a physical building or on a web page. The really good news about barrier-free design is that it accommodates everyone.
Good graphic design makes itself felt but doesn't get in the way of the message. Good web design does the same. Making a web site that is functional, accessible, easy to navigate (for people with and without visual disabilities), accommodates the Google indexing, works on all browsers and platforms, and displays correctly on mobile devices (cell phones, iPads, etc.) and looks great is possible. Don't let anyone tell you it's not.
Gimmicks and "bells and whistles" are not good design. They actually make it more difficult for someone to use your web site, can get in the way of Google indexing and cause problems displaying on mobile devices. If you are running a business and want people to use your site, this is not the place for a cheesy gimmick just because someone thought it "looked cool".
That is not to say that your site needs to be boring. On the contrary, your site needs to look great. There is a lot of great design out there and you need to look as good as your competition. Sophisticated design is very possible and will make your page stand out.
Advice for web designers
First of all, stop designing pages using tables. They turn into a jumble when a web reader looks at it. Actually, they can be a jumble to look at anyway. If you are still designing in a "jig-saw" fashion, please stop. A web page is not a newspaper, don't design it like one.
This is what a web page should look like. A header, main content, a sidebar or two if necessary and a footer. That's all. Learn how to design for this.
Avoid gimmicks and cheesy design. Just because you discovered some cool javascript gimmick doesn't mean it should be on your web page. In addition to looking terrible it also gets in the way of the Google indexing. Want a higher google rating? Remove the gimmicks from your page.
Use text for your hyperlinks. That is, avoid putting critical content in a jpeg. The Google indexing "bots" have a terrible time figuring out your jpegs, even with alt tags. And putting hyperlinks in a jpeg makes it impossible for people with visual disabilities to enlarge the type.
Improve your contrast. Even people who don't have limitations on perceiving color can have trouble with poor contrast. Ask yourself, what would this page look like in grayscale? Better still, take it into Photoshop and check it. If it looks good in grayscale it can look spectacular in color.
Finesse your typography. CSS allows much more control over your type. Small refinements can add a lot of sophistication to the look of your web page. On this page, I have created a class for the second H2 heading that allows for more before space and have modified the p tag for line height with top and bottom margin spacing. It is done as a percentage, by the way, not as pixels.
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