Accessible web design		Content & navigation • HTML • Interactive & other media • WebCT accessibility issues • Validation

Basic web design rules apply egardless of the target audience for your site. Clarity of navigation and content, speed of download and easy access for the user to what they need are priorities. Web design should ideally be 'transparent': the design is a tool for the user to access information and functions, not an element in itself.

Jakob Nielsen's basic 'usability' heuristics are applicable, particularly in an educational context where effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility are all essential. Also worth considering are his articles Top ten mistakes in Web design (May 96) and Top ten new mistakes of Web design (May 99), which proscribe the use of such elements as frames and multimedia elements (eg Flash) unless identifed as essential elements which will improve the usability of the site.

These guidelines relate to general usability, and may not be applicable to all circumstances, particularly in an educational environment which has some different requirements to the general web environment. They do, however, present a useful checklist of elements that should be very carefully considered before using.

Special requirements for disabled accessibility are a substantial additional issue, and Nielsen recommends (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990613.html) that web developers follow the Web Accessibility Initiative Standard (WAI) developed in conjuction with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

The WAI group has developed a set of basic guidelines for web content accessibility (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/). This has been extrapolated into a prioritised checklist of design rules, with 17 high-priority rules (for major accessibility issues), 33 medium priority rules (for moderate accessibility issues) and 16 lower-priority rules (which have a minor effect on accessibility).

However, any amount of guidelines cannot replace the 'web sense' which is developed by exploring the web, investigating adaptive technologies, and finding out through discussion with disabled users what their needs are.

Specific accessibility issues are addressed in the following pages: Content & navigation, HTML, Interactive & other media, WebCT accessibility issues and Validation

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