Oddly executed accessibility – hide the widget
Friday, June 17th, 2005 at 11:37 amI just stumbled upon yet another web site widget that should enhance the accessibility and usability of the site, by offering different site widths and font sizes:
My question now is who that really helps? A visitor with bad eyesight is not likely to be able to decypher what these icons mean.
They do have a proper alternative text, but that is not visible until you turn off images (or hover over the images in MSIE).
The implementation is even worse: All the links point to “javascript:void(0)”, which means that without JavaScript, they are dead and useless.
It is a wonderful idea to help visitors with special needs, but it is harmful to implement them using design and technology that assumes the same users don’t have these needs.