It is desirable that everyone, regardless of visual or other impairments, be able to access web sites. A growing number of organizations are mandating web site accessibility. If you receive funding from a federal agency, for instance, your site must be accessibile.

The visually imaired often use a machine which will "read" aloud to them the text of a web page. With these viewers in mind, it is important that everything on each page be machine readable including all images, art, photos, logos, etc., which can be "tagged' with "alt" (alternative) labels.

Flash animations are not machine readable, nor are many other special effects, so a redundancy must be created in some way to accomodate the readers. I use two methods to allow accessibility: I either offer an entirely different set of web pages to the user of a reader (or earlier browsers) on the "home" page, or I place readable text along with Flash text. In some cases I simply place plain text in the BACKGROUND COLOR on a page. Sighted viewers don't see the background-colored text, but a reading machine will detect it and speak the text to the visually impaired viewer. Below is a line of text hidden in the background color. Highlight it with your mouse and you'll be able to read it!

This text is in the background color (white).

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