Website Accessibility means the website accessible to all the users in the web including visitors with disability. Many website owners know that their website is available in the internet for visitors to access information but possibly may not know whether their website is easily accessible and even be unaware about Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

According to Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), all the business should make their services accessible to disabled users. There is also a section in DDA which addresses that if a business offers an online service, even the information is on a single page, then the business is responsible for making an effort to make this information accessible to disabled users.

All new websites that are designed and developed should now follow the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) against which the accessibility of the website is measured. But when the website is found isn't complaint, then anybody can sue you legally, if they want to.

By following these guidelines, you enhance the professional look of your website, provide access to visitors who previously had not no choice, thus increasing your business prospects and finally not to forget, your business is legal.

Some basic Guidelines to increase the accessibility of the visitors

Validate HTML and CSS: To check if the HTML and CSS used is valid, W3C validator can be used. It is necessary that websites are checked as the validator automatically tells you about any errors and accessibility issues in the web pages.

Image and alternative text: For browsers which don't support images, alternative text can be used to explain what the image is about as the user will only see the text.

Resize font text: Most of the internet browsers use Internet explorer to search for information. If the size of the text can be increased by choosing the font size to the largest then it means that your website is accessible to visitors.

Use of Java script: Websites are not easily accessible when java script is disabled. Mostly people have the java script support switched off, if that's the case then make sure that you use the Java script sensibly and unnoticeably.

Check for the following,

1. Website is accessible without the use of a mouse

2. Website has a Sitemap

3. Website has link text relevant to the content (blind users use tabbing while browsing websites from one link to the other)

Functions are used to perform a well defined task that is normally repeated at various places within a web site, web application, or other software application. The function sometimes needs certain information before performing its task, and sometimes returns a value to the calling page or program.

An example of how to use a simple function in PHP:

 function showMessage() {
echo "{$_SESSION["message"]}"; }

The above example shows a very simple function that displays the contents of a session variable called 'message'. The idea being that while a user is using a web site, etc, various messages are generated and stored in the 'message' session variable. Whenever the showMessage function is called, the contents of the session variable are displayed. So, for example, when the user logs on, you could display a message saying that they have done so. Likewise, when they log off, a different message could be displayed.

Calling a function

To call the showMessage function, you would just need to include the line:

showMessage()

in the web page (wrapped in php tags to distinguish it from normall HTML).

Passing values to a function

Often, a function requires one or more input values in order to perform its task. For example, take the following example that takes two numbers as input, and adds them together. The result is then returned to the calling web page or program.

function addNumbers($number1,$number2) {
$answer = $number1 + $number2;
return $answer; }

In the calling program we would have something similar to the following:

$number1 = "5";
$number2 = "6";
$sumOfNumbers = addNumbers($number1,$number2);
echo "$sumOfNumbers";

Obviously, in a real program you would not have the numbers hardcoded like this, but they would be obtained from user input or by some other means. Notice also that although the name of the returned variable is $answer, the calling program makes no reference to that. We could, if we wanted to, change the calling program to:

$answer = addNumbers($number1,$number2);
echo "$answer";

which might make things slightly easier to understand.

For newbie's starting out with an online venture the notion of building a site can be a challenging one. There is so much information out there it's hard to know where to start. What direction should you go in to yield the best results?

Where you really need to start is with yourself. Write down what you wish to accomplish and put together some form of outline that will help you stay focused. One thing is for sure when doing anything online and that is you will find yourself getting distracted here and there when seeking out information.

This happens to us all but if you have an outline posted in front of you then it will be easier to stay focused. To make life easier on yourself you can use a site builder to build your site.

The advantage of a site builder is that it will help you to construct your site without having to worry about the technical details. The good site builders will also help you to construct your web pages properly so that your reader can understand your message and the search engines can figure out what your pages are about.

This will help your site to get indexed and into the search engines which overtime will provide you with free targeted traffic and if your webpage's are set up right this traffic will make you money.

In some cases site builders come with hosting as well. Once again this provides you with less to worry about and you can get on with the task of building your site around your favorite topic.

To conclude keep it simple, stay focused and you will achieve your goals.