Why exclude people from your technology?
Nomensa firmly believes that inclusive design is not only ethically correct, it makes good business sense.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) which represents 2 million visually impaired people is campaigning heavily for accessible web design, with Nomensa's full support. There are also legal implications if you are a provider of services or goods. The Olympics 2000 site highlighted the whole issue of inaccessible web design with the organisation responsible for the site design taken to court and fined $20,000 (Australian dollars).
United Kingdom accessibility law is based on the Disability and Discrimination Act (1995) with Section 21 being brought into force from 1st October 1999. It is now arguable that service providers have a legal duty to make their sites accessible.
What does it mean to have an accessible site?
You do not have to have a boring-looking site to have an accessible site. You just need to understand how to design the technology around the user regardless of ability. In fact, we believe that creative input is fundamental to the whole process of site design and our designers have mastered the art of designing sites that are not only totally accessible but visually stunning and creative.
Take this site for example, it makes use of graphics, Flash animations, XML and XHTML without compromising accessibility on various devices. Any device that can read HTML over the Internet can view this site. Whether that person is using the latest PC with all the plug-ins on broadband, viewing using Interactive television, or via a PDA - we have considered the technologies and designed the experience around the user.
That is not to say that the user experience for each device will be identical, it often is not. However, what makes our site accessible is that all the content on the site is equally accessible to everyone.
