3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
1–10 of 250 posts
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#2Probably because those 3% are homogeneous, while the 9% decompose into lots and lots of categories, all with specific needs, and all much smaller than 9%.
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#3Probably because those 3% are homogeneous, while the 9% decompose into lots and lots of categories, all with specific needs, and all much smaller than 9%.
It's also easy to measure that 3% (and, by the way, it's way more than 3% on some of my sites). Hard to fix something that you don't have good metrics on.
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#4I don't know that I agree that looking at this from a market share perspective is useful. If only 1% of your audience uses screen readers, should you use that fact to decide it's not worth supporting them?
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#5Well to be honest I can test my code in IE9 to see if it works. But I have no idea how a disabled person is experiencing my website, I do put all the "alt" attributes etc...but it's hard to imagine it.
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#6I hate the font choice of this article.
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#7As a side note, designing well for disabilities often translates to better design as well. Those alternate text labels and better layout for screen readers can make your site easier for the googlebot to read. You can find navigation and flow issues. Buttons that are hard to click are harder for everyone to click, even if some can manage. Or those buttons are really hard for everyone on tablets to hit because they are too small.
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#8As a side note, designing well for disabilities often translates to better design as well. Those alternate text labels and better layout for screen readers can make your site easier for the googlebot to read. You can find navigation and flow issues. Buttons that are hard to click are harder for everyone to click, even if some can manage. Or those buttons are really hard for everyone on tablets to hit because they are…
The reverse is also sometimes true: If you use best practices, your website will hopefully be relatively accessible.
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#9worrying about either is financially dumb until you already have millions of customers and economy of scale calls for it*
*there are exceptions for some industries
Re: 3% use IE9 and 14% have a disability. Why do we only cater for the former?
#10Well to be honest I can test my code in IE9 to see if it works. But I have no idea how a disabled person is experiencing my website, I do put all the "alt" attributes etc...but it's hard to imagine it.
Download the Visual Impairment Simulator? Try Microsoft Narrator (or VoiceOver, if you're on OS X) with your eyes closed?
Both are easy and free.