Design Principles to Improve Website Accessibility
John Stamey, CCU - Department of Computer Science; & Thomas L. Honeycutt, North Carolina State University
One important reason for the enactment of Section 508 was to make websites more accessible to individuals with disabilities. Over and above the coding requirements of Section 508, the application of an additional set of ten design considerations have been found to make websites even easier to navigate and use by individuals with disabilities. This paper presents the ten design considerations, and shows their use in a redesign of the website for the Charleston, SC chapter of the Project Management Institute. A group of visually impaired individuals rated the overall usability of three different versions of the website: the original website before Section 508 compliance, a Section 508 compliant version of the website, and Section 508 compliant version that had also been redesigned based on the ten design considerations described herein. The Section 508 compliant and redesigned website was found to receive a significantly higher usability rating.
