[Web4lib] What's wrong with this picture?

[Jonathan Bloy]

On September 19, 2005 6:56pm Stacy Pober wrote:
>Our school has redesigned the college website without asking for input
>from the librarians (or any other faculty as far as I can tell).
><http://www.manhattan.edu/library_mc/index.shtml>
>
>I was told that, as a private college, we need not worry about the
>Americans with Disabilities Act.  But, putting aside any legal issues,
>it seems rude and unkind to offer web pages that are difficult for
>people with visual difficulties to use.

I couldn't agree more.  Making a site accessible is not just about ADA.
For example, looking at the markup, NONE of the image tags have alt
attributes.  There are a lot of people who still have dialup connections
at home.  It's quite common for those with dialup to surf with images
off.  Those people won't see what college the library is from and they
won't see the navigation menu.  I assume the site was "professionally
developed."  Including alt attributes is such a basic thing, I'm quite
surprised they were not used.

I won't go into a rant about how much I dislike the splash pages, except
to ask is there any way you could do a usability study?  Invite some
students in, give them a treat and have them use the library site to
find specific things.  Having some data to back up your impression of
the site (which I think is spot on) could help your argument a lot.

Good luck!

---
Jonathan Bloy
Web Services Librarian
Edgewood College
Madison, Wisconsin
http://library.edgewood.edu