Review: Seven Precepts of Usability and Accessibility and What to do with Them

TechDis offers seven precepts of usability and accessibility to educational establishments or anyone else who wants to check their site off against them. It is an integrated approach that does not distinguish the needs of users with disabilities from others' requirements. The effect of this is to offer something here for both sets of specialists.

The seven precepts, subdivided into many sections, are:
One : Navigation and page layout
Two : Visual Presentation and customisation
Three : Text descriptions for images
Four : Accessible mark-up: forms, lists, scripts and tables
Five : Use and presentation of written language
Six : Accessible issues for other media types
Seven : Help, searches, errors and documentation

The content is simply expressed and thorough. Additionally useful may be the inclusion of a simple guide to evaluating your site against these precepts. The value of the metrics served up by the process is limited, but the activity of evaluating your site against appropriate criteria and judging whether you have 'considered and implemented the issues of the precept:
Completely (4 points)
Mostly (3 points)
In some parts (2 points)
Barely (one point)
Not at all (0 points)' has to be thought-provoking.

As developer Peter Rainger of TechDis comments: 'It is extremely beneficial for a developer to run through a mock evaluation of their web pages before the design elements have been finalised.'

Associated Link: TechDis' Seven Precepts

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