We often talk about accessibility and SEO in different contexts. The truth is that many of the goals in SEO are mirrored in accessibility.
First and foremost, in search engine optimisation, we are attempting to get a non-visually aware system to read, navigate and digest our content. Whilst accessibility does not only cater for and promote useage by the blind or visually impaired, it is one strong facet.
I recently read a comment which described in a single sentence what I am trying to say. “A search engine spider is, by definition, blind” (credit to follow when I find the link).
SEO has become so much more than simply setting the right keywords. It has become key that your content is readable and legible to both man and machine alike. For disabled or impaired users this is key as many rely on machines such as screen readers, text browsers etc to give them the information they are looking for and which (hopefully) you are providing.
I’m by no means perfect on this front, I have sacrificed my morals on accessibility to have a nice looking blog. Both are achievable in equal measure but when you are dealing with someone elses code it isn’t always easy and finding the time to offer something for free when your job is to do the same thing for money is very difficult. No excuses though, this blog should be accessible and it isn’t (yet!).
So what are the correlations between the two in more detail?
Using the analogy above, a search engine spider is your most regular disabled or impaired visitor (70% of my traffic is search engines - shame it doesn’t translate into real visitors lol). A search engine spider is fiercely critical of your design, content and code. What I mean by this is that if it is unable to read it then it only has two courses of action: bury it or disregard it, neither of which is good for your site.
A number of accessibility standards conform exactly to web design standards, for example, the use of heading tags and seperating your content and style.
In short, if you develop your site for good accessibility and good SEO, the two compliment each other exponentially. Try to do one without the other and you may find that it’s all too easy to fail.
Our main website is both accessible (in terms of standards at least) and somewhat optimised for search engines, at least it was… In a recent code update we added some javascript which it seems may make it difficult for some software to view our main site.
Are you a disabled, visually impaired, or other type of screen-reader/text browser user? If so, I would really welcome some honest critical feedback, primarily on our main site : http://www.hungerfordwebdesign.com although I would equally welcome any feedback on any portion of our site(s).
As I have said before, our site is commercial and therefore I would hate to be losing money/customers/opportunities because I have excluded any type of user. The blog is non-commercial and about me being able to share information with peers and learn from visitors and so I am equally disappointed that I am potentially excluding valuable visitors.
The last point I would like to make which I have lightly touched on before, is that for UK site designers, the UK disability discrimination act may well apply. I would hate for someone to make the required changes just because the law says so, I think it is about getting support from site owners and designers. The simplest way is by selling the benefits to them. “Not only will your site have the ability to support a more diverse visitor group but search engines will more readily index your content, thereby inticing more visitors” - no losers!
I have listed a few of the tools which we have used in the past to emulate or recreate a disabled users’ experience (primarily lynx and built in OS screen readers), if you have any suggestions for tools we could use to be more productive in this area, please let us know.
For those in the UK - have an excellent extra day off this weekend!
