Some web developers are resisting or ignoring the concept of accessibility in website design. There are several tests that small business owners may use to see how your website matches up to meet the needs of persons with disabilities.

Here’s a quick test that you can perform to test accessibility for vision impaired persons on your website just by changing the text size settings. From the top menu of Internet Explorer 6, or under the Page tab of IE7, select “text size” and then try “largest”. Does the text size change on the page? If not, your site is not accessible for these visitors, and the web developer who created your site used a fixed size font.

All major browsers have similar features to adjust text, so view help files if it’s not obvious. You may want to test this blog. It uses code for adjustable text size, so vision impaired persons can adjust the text for ease of viewing.

You may perform a more complete test for accessiblity of any website page by visiting the free validator at the HiSoftware accessibility site. Plug in your www address and then check the results. The majority of websites are created with techniques from 10 years ago. To meet accessibility small business owners may need a redesign.

Did you know blind or vision impaired persons have special devices to read pages using speech synthesizers? Accessibility is about more than just vision, so use the resources listed here to learn more.

Code programmed to display pages includes extraneous commands that may interfere with proper presentation of your page content. Bloated or deprecated code and older HTML techniques like tables for layout make web pages difficult or impossible for special devices to interpret because all that HTML code gets in the way. Learn more about Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act here which covers website accessibility in more detail.

Small business owners need to consider the needs of every customer and prospect. By meeting accessibility guidelines online the same way you do with a brick and mortar business, you open the door to persons with disabilities to purchase your product or service.

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