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Childnet
has produced this short guide on design
with the help of AbilityNet www.abilitynet.co.uk.
 Background
and text
You don’t need to be even mildly visually impaired
to get headaches and eyestrain from badly designed pages.
Don’t use backgrounds that clutter the page or which
make reading text more difficult. When it comes to text the
best font is a sans serif such as "Arial". Ask
yourselves these questions:
- Is there good contrast between the background and foreground
text?
- Does your site maintain a consistent use of text fonts?
- Is your text concise, jargon free and easy to understand?
- Have you made sure your font sizes are ‘relative’ rather than ‘absolute’ allowing
users to easily increase or decrease the font sizes?
 Graphics
and images
Ask yourself the question if I couldn’t see this image
would I be able to gain the information another way? To help
people who can’t see use the "alt" attribute
command in html to describe the image.
- Do the graphics and images on your site have good descriptions
and give the context for the illustration?
- If the illustrations or graphics flash or animate can
the user turn them off?
 Organisations
and links
Consistent design reminds visitors that they are visiting
a complete site and not just a jumbled collection of pages.
When using links avoid simply saying "click here" but
explain exactly what happens if you click on a link. Consider
how beneficial banner ads really are to your site.
- Is there a link back to the home page on each of your
web pages?
- Are navigation links positioned in the same place on
each page
- Is the website layout logical and intuitive?
- If you use frames, have you titled each one clearly
to describe the content of the frame?
 Technical
considerations
As you design your website consider whether you need to
use plug ins, scripts and applets. If you can, consider offering
a non-frames version of your site. If you have java-enriched
pages, can the site still function if the java is turned
off?
- If you display your site in a low screen resolution – 640
X 480 can you still see the text?
- If you switch off the graphics in your browser can you
still understand your pages?
- Have you tested your website against one of the Accessibility
services?
photos of
children | disability | forums |