Services : Accessibility and SEO

Lucid Crew constructs websites with accessibility and search engine optimization in mind. The following is a list of standard practices that we employ to ensure that your website meets 508 accessibility standards and is highly visible to search engines:

No Tables!

If you ask a web designer if they design with tables – and the answer is “yes”, it is impossible for them to create an accessible website. The elimination of tables to create a structure of the site is the first step towards accessibility. Tables should only be used to create a table of data, not to design a website.

Semantic markup

This gives browsing devices a chance of interpreting and presenting the content in a way that is suitable for the meaning it has. As an additional benefit, search engines also tend to favor semantic markup. Sematic markup employs html tags only for the use in which they were intended. (<h1> - <h6>), lists ( <ul>, <ol>, <dl>), quotations (<blockquote>, <q>), and emphasis (<strong>, <em>) are examples.

No Frames

Frames generally make a site less accessible and usable, and should be avoided. Frames are also an indication that the site was built by a web developer with a lack of understanding of both accessibility and usability.

Alternate Text for Images

Many people misunderstand the ‘alt’ attribute. It is meant to provide meaningful, informative text that should be used as an alternative when an informational image or other graphical object cannot be displayed. The ‘alt’ attribute is required for ‘img’ and ‘area’ elements.

Unobtrusive javascript

Among public sector websites the most common problem is navigational links (menus) that require inline javascript to display. We ensure that the use of javascript is sensible and unobtrusive, and provide for graceful degradation if javascript is not available.

Text Size

If font size is specified in pixels, users of Internet Explorer for Windows cannot change the font size without first changing settings in their browser, which very few people do. We set font-size in a relative units like em or %.

Ability to be read with no styling

An accessible document should be well-structured, meaningful, and readable without CSS (styling). This is another result of semantic markup and the exclusion of the use of tables in the site construction.

Color Contrast

If there is not enough difference in hue and brightness between foreground and background colors many people will have trouble reading the text.

Content links should also differ from surrounding text not only in color, but also, for example by being bold or underlined.

Link Text

Links should make sense when read out of context. “Click here” or “here” does not make for good link text since there is no information at all about the link’s target. In general, the same link text should not be used for links that lead to different destinations. Ideally each link should be able to stand on its own and make sense out of context. There are exceptions to this. Link texts like “Read more” or “Continue reading” may be ok in a news listing or similar, as long as the title attribute is used to differentiate the links.

Non HTML formats

If the site makes important information available in PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or other proprietary formats, HTML alternatives should also be provided. Note that there is nothing wrong with making information available in non-HTML formats as long as it is also available as HTML.

Keyboard navigation

Screen reader users do not use a mouse to navigate the web, so this is very important to them to have alternate keystrokes available for navigation.

Form controls and labels

Each visible form control should be explicitly associated with a label element.