Blog
5 Website Design Elements Critical for Brand Building
A well-knit and structured website is of primary importance for any brand or business. The website plays the greatest role in promoting and advancing any business. It helps you bring out the brand identity for your business. Only if your website is intricately designed can customers understand what exactly your business deals with. Designing Websites for Brand Building - Why is it Essential? To promote your brand identity, you need to take extra care about the... read more »
How does a blind person use their credit card?
An intriguing question This is a question that hadn’t occurred to me before. I’m doing an audit this week for a travel company and part of the process is making a booking and paying for it. My testers will use the company credit card of course, I provide them with the details in advance. One of my testers, who I will call Mary, said she was glad I was able to do that because she... read more »
My TEDx Talk on website accessibility for disabled people is now online!
I was extremely privileged to present my TEDx Talk at the TEDx Lukely Brook event yesterday, over in the Isle of Wight. After talking about this subject for 15 years at many networking and other events in the South, it was simply wonderful to be given the opportunity to present on the TEDx stage.I want to thank Dale Howarth and his Team for making me feel so welcome. I met some wonderful people and... read more »
Changing the world, one website at a time
I spent the weekend putting the finishing touches together for my TEDx talk on Wednesday. After 15 years of talking about website accessibility for disabled people to everyone who will listen (and even some who wouldn’t!), I am just so excited to have this wonderful opportunity to put the message out to a much wider audience.I should be on stage around 3.30pm and the event is being live-streamed.... read more »
You cannot use a mouse or a keyboard, what do you do?
Some of us have significant challenges This is the daily experience for one of my fab testers, Iona. A brain injury 5 years ago left her without the use of one hand and only limited use of her other hand. Using a keyboard or a mouse for any period of time is painful, so she relies on Dragon Dictation software. We use whatever tools are available Dragon Dictation is perfectly adequate for emails and writing text but... read more »
What is it really like to use a screen reader?
What are screen readers? I talk about screen readers a fair bit. They allow blind people to use websites. Blind people cannot use a mouse because they cannot see what to click on. They use a keyboard instead, in conjunction with software such as JAWS or NVDA. This software “reads out” what is on the website and the person will use the keyboard to navigate and interact with it.It all sounds interesting and isn’t it... read more »
What is a website accessibility statement?
Why did I write this post? I ran a poll last week in which I asked some questions about website accessibility statements. My poll is now closed and I am very grateful to everyone who took part.53% of those who responded did not know what a website accessibility statement one was, so that is subject of my post today!A website accessibility statement is produced after you have had an accessibility audit of your website. The... read more »
A fresh new logo for 2022 with a brand new website to follow soon!
We have 3 websites: Access by Design, Run Your Own Website and Access by Audit.Run Your Own Website Version 2 was launched last year, with a fresh new website design and an updated logo. Access by Audit was only launched last year and so also has a fresh design.That just leaves Access by Design, our main website. This was last... read more »
Is this an acceptable Cookie Banner?
The image is of a stop sign, a wheelchair sign with a cross through it. The text reads "This website is for people who are not disabled. Click here to confirm you are not disabled before entering this website.Whether you think this is acceptable or not, this is the Cookie Banner that... read more »
It is not just about Cookie Banners...
A life-changing accident... June 11th 1989. Jess and I were teenagers.She was the singer in my band and we were also engaged.We were passengers in a horrific car accident that left us both with life-changing injuries.I had a collapsed lung and was on life-support and the medical staff put my chances of survival at very slim. I also suffered major head trauma that has led to profound long-term difficulties, particularly in terms of memory and... read more »