Re: accessibility and usability

I think Roy S has provided the best explanation so far. The term
accessibility has come to refer to anything you do to make it easier
for those with disabilities to access your page. There are things you
can do in your code like using CSS instead of using tables for layout.
This makes it easier for page reading software like those used by the
blind to interprit the page. Think what all those nested TD and TR tags
sound like. Describing the image in the title or alt tag is another step
you can take.
Usability refers to how well the general population can use your site.
Basically the 'ease of use'. In general usability talks about things
like making navigation intuative and easy, using standard
conventions(like using a little arrow next to a pulldown menu to
indicate you can pull it down) and stuff like that. . There are plenty
of books about usability.

For more info on accessability check out

The W3C is the organization that sets web standards. They have a working
group for making the web more accessable. The link below points toward
the Working Groups Homepage. There you will find rev 2 of the working
groups accessability guidlines.

http://www.w3c.org/WAI/

The United States Government has mandated all goverment web sites will
be accessable to those with disabilities. Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 describes how to do this. Visit the website
below for all the info.

http://www.section508.gov/

Frank


S
Barbara de Zoete wrote:

[F'up set to ciwas-d]

I am getting more and more confused as to the meaning of the words
'accessibility' and 'usability' *in the context of the world wide web*.
What do these two words mean? How do they differ from one another?
Where does the meaning overlap, if it does? Where do they perhaps
conflict with one another, if they do?

Can anyone please explain to someone who is not native speaking, nor
fluent in English?

TIA

Frank Vanhoof <nospam (AT) frankvanhoof (DOT) com> writes:

I think Roy S has provided the best explanation so far. The term
accessibility has come to refer to anything you do to make it easier
for those with disabilities to access your page. There are things you

I think the wider definition of 'atypical browsing situations' is more
useful than 'disabilities', but yes.

can do in your code like using CSS instead of using tables for
layout. This makes it easier for page reading software like those used
by the blind to interprit the page. Think what all those nested TD and
TR tags sound like.

[Note: tangent to the main issue, I largely agree with your post]

While table layout has a mass of disadvantages, *provided* it
linearises properly (which is a big if, I admit) its display in a
screen reader or speech browser isn't actually one of them. These
things have been designed in an age of table layout and can cope with
it.

All of the ones I've been able to test have coped better with table
layout that some visual browsers I could name (w3m, links -nog,
openwave, etc).

There's a minor disadvantage when it comes to coping with data tables
if the site is heavy on layout tables, but provided that they have
correct <th>s set up it's still not too bad.

I'm not recommending the use of layout tables. I think there's a lot
of things that could be done better once they're gone. But (_provided
they linearise properly_) the difficulty involved (for someone who
doesn't know a reasonable amount about CSS) in getting rid of them
only rarely justifies the accessibility improvement when they're gone.

There are almost always changes that can be made that would help
accessibility more for less effort.

--
Chris