Our sites include coding to the standards of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), this is a UK legal standard that MOST sites do not conform to. Site owners are legally responsible for the structure of their site and our hand coding ensures compliance.

In the past, web accessibility was merely an ethical web practice. Many webmasters did not fulflil this obligation – unintentionally rather than out of disrespect or laziness. Generally, webmasters just didn't consider the need for this type of action.

In 1995, the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) was passed in the UK. The first formal legislation of its kind, it made it illegal for business owners and webmasters to neglect making their site accessible to disabled persons.

To understand the technology and techniques related to accessibility we really need to define what accessibility is. It is not only about people with disabilities - it is about the delivery of content to the widest possible audience.

Users may have different versions of browsers or other web-enabled devices including handhelds, WebTV, aural browsers etc. We tend to use "UA" - User Agent - as a symbol of any device that can handle the HTML language.

We are not able to control our users actions and we should not exclude anyone because we are not able to deliver content in an accessible way. Because different UAs can have different features we need to assume a user's UA may:

• not display graphics

• not interpret JavaScript, or have JavaScript disabled

• not have plugins installed, or have plugins disabled

All users may configure their UA and operating system to meet their preferences, so we don't know:

• what their resolution is

• if they are browsing in a full-screen or resized window

• what their preferred font size is

• if they have disabled images, scripts or plugins

So the only thing we can say with certainty is that we don't know anything about the user! Statistics abound and some web developers think that if they meet the needs of 90% of their target market it's more then enough - we tend to disagree.

We all need to accept responsibility for accessible websites: web designers, web developers, programmers, project managers. - in general: "people who make websites". We need to use appropriate tools to deal with users' preferences and ensure that your site is available to the widest possible audience. 

Usablity

Closely linked with Accessibility is usability. 

How often have you wandered around a supermarket looking for that elusive product?  A web site is no different – a simple to navigate and well laid out web site will encourage visitors to return time and time again.

As the Scott Wilson site will be an information portal for current clients, partners, potential staff and existing clients a clear well presented navigation is essential.

We spend a lot of time developing easy to use sites ensuring navigation menus are easy to use and consistent whilst allowing users to ‘drill’ down and find the desired information in a clear and informative manner.

As soon as any page on the site has loaded we like users to be able to:

• See where they are – clear bread crumb trail
• Understand what the site is about – strong graphics
• Find more content and further information on a topic – search box and hints e.g. you might also like to read these articles / pages etc…
• Login for further functionality 

Fast loading

The biggest single reason visitors do not stay at a Website is that it takes too long to load - that is the time it takes for the page to appear on the computer screen.  The site needs to be designed around the premise of 'loading' as quickly as possible. 

To achieve this Webstars will ensure a strong text base for the pages (text loads very, very quickly).  When photographs are used, we will tailor them to be the appropriate size and structure to ensure that they load within an appropriate timeframe. 

Browser compatibility

The site needs to be compatible for viewing across a wide range of user platforms and browser software.  We will test the site with many different browsers to ensure that the vast majority of visitors can see the site quickly and easily.

Search Engine Friendly Websites

All database systems are not created equal. 

Our database systems incorporate features developed in house for Micorsoft bCentral. Through extensive reasearch and trials we have created a database system that is as search engine friendly as a regular site. Standard features include short, keyword rich url's and a site structure that can be indexed down to the last page.

As an added benefit our hand coded DDA compliant sites out-perform standard sites in search engine listings as we separate the content (search engines love this) from the pictures (search engines ingnore them but humans like them).

We also use human friendly url’s which can be read far more easliy by the search engines. For example some engines will not index a page with a question mark in the URL.

This is typical poor database generated url

index.php?pageid=196&sectionid=34&sectionid2=12

Our system generates URL's that look like this:

    /products/contentmanagement

This also impacts on useability, as users can see where they are in the site.