Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone

Adventures in E-Commerce

Accessibility barriers are not created because Web developers want to keep people away from online information. Rather, they most often occur as the result of ignorance. The creators of most inaccessible sites have simply never thought about the fact that people with disabilities use the Internet in the same way as anyone else: for fun, for learning, for community information—and for commerce. This is the first of several chapters in which we illustrate particular design features by inviting you to experience the Web along with us as we browse using assistive technology. In this chapter, we are trying to make a purchase online. Most of the barriers we encounter here are caused by missing ALT text—that is, image maps ...