Skip to content

A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites.

Boagworld is the web design blog of Paul (the Wurzel) Boag who lives in the heart of rural Dorset. He produces a weekly podcast with Marcus (pop star) Lillington on all things relating to building and running websites. They also run web design agency - Headscape.

Latest Shows

202. Rocket Surgery Made Easy
This week on Boagworld: Steve Krug on monthly usability, Steve Marshall talks about form design and Paul rejoices over the new era for browsers in Europe.
201. Are clients stupid?
This week on Boagworld: We review the freelancing book Noded, discover a new web tool called 'Support Details' and Paul tells us all a story.
200. A taste of the show
This week's show gives you a taste of the live 12 hour marathon that took place to celebrate the 200th Boagworld.
199. Time to generalise
This week on Boagworld: The changing role of web designers, Colin Firth on content and Becky Jones talks about the changes at Google.
198. jQuery goodness
This week on Boagworld: Dave interviews Remy Sharp creator of jQuery for Designers and Matt Bee dares to review the Website Owners Manual.

or view all shows

Have your say

Become a part of the Boagworld community...

Web Design Podcast (10) – Web Accessibility

Posted in Podcast on: Monday, October 24, 2005 by Paul Boag

On this life-changing episode of boagworld (Okay, so I have delusions of grandeur), we look at the subject of web accessibility. What is it? Why it is important? And how to decide just how accessible your site needs to be.

Download this show.

Below are some brief notes that might give you a vague idea of what was covered in this episode. There are also some links on you might find useful.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility is about making your site available to the widest possible no matter what disability, device, or they are using.

For more on the different definitions of web accessibility read "Accessibility debates, more harm than good!"

Why should I make my site accessible?

We have a legal and morale obligation to make our sites accessible. However, it also makes good commercial sense. Why turn people away from your site just because they have a disability or do not have the latest browser.

How is accessibility measured?

Although many countries have different web accessibility legislation the W3C guidelines are considered the basis for good accessibility. However, these are indeed guidelines and should be treated as such. The WCAG are the start of good web accessibility not the end.

The same is true for automated checkers like Bobby. Although a valuable starting point for web accessibility they have many limitations.

Learn more about the role of automated accessibility checkers.

So how accessible do I need to be?

Deciding how accessible to make your site should, like so much in web , be based around your target audience. You should consider their needs and examine these against design, technical and commercial constraints.

Other great stuff to read

Building accessible websites

Accessible sites don’t have to be ugly

Accessibility for low vision users

Accessibility and the new Headscape website

An inclusive and pragmatic approach to accessibility

What did you think about this post?

7 Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

Leave a comment

Additional Information

Produced by Headscape

Boagworld is produced by the web design agency Headscape founded by Marcus, Paul and Chris Scott. Headscape also has a number of other talented guys who blog. Check them out.

  • Craig Rowe is one of our amazing developers and writes some superb posts on everything from .net to AIR apps.

  • Ed Merritt is a Headscape designer who's blog contains examples of his work and a number of free Wordpress themes.

  • Dave McDermid is a Headscape developer who has an excellent blog. He blogs on everything from AJAX to security.

  • Rob Borley is one of our project managers and blogs regularly on client and project management issues.

  • Leigh Howells is our multimedia design guru (whatever one of those is). He blogs on a mixture of design and music.

Paul elsewhere

Paul just can't shut up. He publishes regular audioboos, has a personal blog and is addicted to twitter. He also writes and speaks regularly. Check out the most recent below:

close
Follow Boagworld at SXSW on our Southby Blog. Also you can follow us on twitter @boagworldAtSXSW