Accessibility policy
To us, “accessibility” means that your website should be available to anyone, anywhere, using any browsing device. We do not restrict access just because a user has a small monitor, an older browser, a screen reader, or another ‘minority’ device.
Business benefits
All Optimalworks sites adhere to W3C web standards. This offers many business benefits:
- your site can be rapidly re-branded when required
- your content is optimised for search engines
- your pages will load quickly - even on a dialup connection
- your site can accessed by a wider audience
- your site complies with disability discrimination laws
- your hosting costs are significantly reduced
- your site is future proofed and should work on new browsers with minimal effort
It has been reported that 97% of websites do not adhere to web standards and accessibility guidelines. Corporate sites fare the worst, although they have the most to gain.
Helping search engines
Search engines, such as Google, are the most restricted users of your site. They can only index content the way it is ordered, they can not see text embedded within graphics, and they do not understand visual layouts or effects. The techniques we employ help search engines to index your website effectively: it will increase your page rank, your visitors, and your sales.
Page layout and design
We use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout. However, your site will remain usable if someone uses an older browser that does not support CSS.
We can also create scalable or ’stretchy’ web designs that allow your users to resize the text and browser window to a size that suits them.
Progressive enhancement
We can improve website usability using modern Web2.0 techniques, such as AJAX and DOM scripting, to provide slick modern interfaces. However, we ensure your site remains usable by people who can not use those technologies.
Help us help you
If you experience problems using any of our websites, please contact us with a description of the problem. We will endeavour to help you.