accessibility

An issue which is often in the back of my mind, but often not even on the radar of a lot of Catholic web developers (I know this from experience) is online accessibility. Many new/remodeled Catholic Churches have hundreds of new technologies in place to help those with disabilities—wheelchair ramps, wider aisles, larger bathrooms, elevators... and many of these innovations cost a pretty penny.

Shouldn't we develop our websites with the same amount of care for disabled persons' unique set of abilities?

Much time during the design of the current archstl.org website was spent on WCAG 2 and Section 508 compliance, and the web development platform we have chosen (Drupal) goes a long way towards helping in this regard (in fact, Drupal 7 will be almost completely WCAG 2.0 compliant from the start!).

The archstl.org website passes the WCAG 2.0 checklist with only a few minor suggestions (but none that will cause much hassle for users with disabilities). Check it at http://achecker.ca/checker/index.php.

I also try to have 'real-world' persons with visual impairment test my designs, to make sure they can easily:

1. Browse the website
2. Search the website
3. Hear/see the information on the page they'd like to hear or see
4. Know what images are on the page, even if they can't see them

Make your information searchable, accessible, and reader-friendly... this is from a post on archstldev.com:

If you perform a web search via Google, or in the search engine on any website in the world, your search is done using simple words, like "bishop st. louis." A search engine must be able to see words like these in your pages if you want people to find your pages.

You need to have written text on the page (copied and pasted, or typed on the website) if you want people to be able to search for your information, and if you want people to be able to easily read and share your information.

Continue reading about the importance of text on your website (as opposed to an image of text) on archstldev.com »