Some basic tests to check your website for accessibility

Written by Trenton Moss


Continued from page 1

4. Check that forms are accessible Usually there is prompt text next to each item in a form. For example, a contact form might haverepparttar prompt text ‘name’, ‘e-mail’, and ‘comments’, each one next to a box where your site users will enterrepparttar 118738 information. When you click onrepparttar 118739 prompt text, does a flashing cursor appear inrepparttar 118740 box next to that text? If not, your forms are inaccessible.

5. Check that text can be resized In Internet Explorer (used by over 90% of Internet users) go to View > Font size > Largest. Doesrepparttar 118741 text on your website increase in size? If not, then your website is inaccessible to web users with poor visibility.

6. Check your website inrepparttar 118742 Lynx browser The Lynx browser is a text-only browser and does not support many ofrepparttar 118743 features that other browsers such as Internet Explorer have. You can check how your site looks in this browser withrepparttar 118744 Lynx Viewer, available at http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html. If your website makes sense and can be navigated throughrepparttar 118745 Lynx browser, then it will be fulfilling many ofrepparttar 118746 web accessibility guidelines.

7. Check that you can access all areas of your website withoutrepparttar 118747 use of a mouse Can you navigate through your website using just tab, shift-tab and return? If not, then neither can keyboard- and voice-only users.

8. Check that there is a site map Can you find a site map? If not, then neither can people who are lost on your website.

9. Check your web pages with an automated program Two programs available for free onrepparttar 118748 Internet are Bobby (http://bobby.watchfire.com) and Wave (http://www.wave.webaim.org). They are unable to provide you with allrepparttar 118749 information that you need, as some checks must be done by humans, but they can tell you some ofrepparttar 118750 areas where your site might be going wrong.

10. Hire an expert Hire a web accessibility professional to test your website.

This article was written by Trenton Moss of Webcredible (http://www.webcredible.co.uk), the user-friendly website experts. Find articles and tutorials about web usability, web accessibility, web credibility, search engine optimisation and CSS in the extensive web development resources (http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/) area of their website.


Did Yahoo!'s Rising Storm Finalize a Shift in AskJeeves Colors?

Written by Ross Dunn


Continued from page 1

During my interview with Jim Lanzone, we discussed Ask's current standing and where he expectsrepparttar prominent search engine to appear withinrepparttar 118737 next few years. Obviously Jim could not provide specifics onrepparttar 118738 technology they plan on including; however, I was able to garner some idea ofrepparttar 118739 company's vision:

Jim gave serious kudos to Google and Yahoo! for creating relationships withrepparttar 118740 ‘hidden web'; vast information resources once missed byrepparttar 118741 average search engine such asrepparttar 118742 Library of Congress, US Supreme Court Audio,repparttar 118743 NPR, etc.. According to Jim these types of relationships are definitely going to play a role in future development at Ask. The problem is time, they plan on making some inroads this year but it will take a while before Ask can matchrepparttar 118744 kind of advances that Yahoo or Google have made. This is especially true since Index Express was phased out; initially this was to berepparttar 118745 model for uncoveringrepparttar 118746 hidden web.

AskJeeves is very focused on providing a quality user experience. This is evidenced strongly by Ask's current clean interface and Smart Search ideology that “search experience is as important as results themselves”. From what I could gather, Ask's goal is to minimizerepparttar 118747 successful search experience to one click.

A fresher index was noted which indicates a strong desire to begin spidering web sites more frequently inrepparttar 118748 near future. Jim did not elaborate on this, however, I speculate that this means isolating web sites that are updated regularly and spidering them more often.

Currentlyrepparttar 118749 News section of AskJeeves is populated using Moreover; a popular and reliable news syndication resource. Atrepparttar 118750 moment, Ask only minimally controlsrepparttar 118751 results of its Moreover results with a basic algorithm. This is a major difference between AskJeeves and its search competitors Google and Yahoo!; Ask isrepparttar 118752 only engine without its own news spider! When asked, Jim noted that advances in Ask's news asset will begin to take place inrepparttar 118753 second quarter of this year.

What else? At this point inrepparttar 118754 interview I encounteredrepparttar 118755 familiar and completely understandable ‘wall of vague'; to quote Jim Lanzone, AskJeeves plans to “move intorepparttar 118756 different areas of search and apply our search engines to new areas ofrepparttar 118757 web and make improvements torepparttar 118758 methodologies that determinerepparttar 118759 relevance ofrepparttar 118760 web.” Well said!

Ross Dunn is the CEO of StepForth Search Engine Placement, a search engine marketing company founded in 1997 and based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. You can visit their website at www.stepforth.com.


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