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Re: web site to review

for

From: Steven Henderson
Date: Aug 21, 2009 5:00AM


I'm in agreement, Simius.

Regarding the original discussion of placing the company name/what they do
in a heading img attribute, I think page title or meta description should
clearly identify who the company is (Ecumenical Community Center for
example) and what they do (provide humanitarian care & services for
example). Heading 1 should be unique to each page in my opinion, as it comes
second to who the company actually is (which should be retained in the URL,
page title, description of every page as often does anyways, for good
reason). The company name and description does not need blurbing in the body
copy of every page, least not as the main heading, as this should be focused
on explaining the most important think ... what this 'page' is about, and
not who the company is on each page.

Just to be clear, this is just my view which is already reflected by search
engines. If you want to find someone who provides humanitarian care, you
search a search engine for 'humanitarian care' to find a heading called
'Ecumenical Community Center' with the description for the home page which
reads 'Humanitarian care & services' and the url
ecumenicalcommunitycenter.net/humanitariancare.html in the search results
for example, which prompts you to click the link and read about humanitarian
care ... if you want to know who the company name is, that should already be
in the URL as that is good branding, maybe in the page title too - that
should be evident before you even read the body copy, and if you want to
know what other products or services they provide or even more about the
company, you click on a link in the menu (that is what a menu is for
afterall).

Steven




-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Simius Puer
Sent: 21 August 2009 11:23
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] web site to review

2009/8/20 Stephan Wehner < <EMAIL REMOVED> >

> I have a site I would really like to get reviewed (not now, but in the
> future).
>
> It's commercial however. So I wanted to ask whether it is ok to ask
> for feedback for that as well?


...there are no restrictions (as far as I'm aware - anyone read all the
t&c?) and certainly no harm in asking.

We are all here to try and promote/further accessibility so I'd say the
commercial aspect is pretty irrelevant. It's up to the individuals who make
up the community if they decide to help.


2009/8/21 Steven Henderson < <EMAIL REMOVED> >

> I wondered if meta description was a good enough place to 'write' about
the
> company, instead of in the alt attribute of the logo ... so as to avoid
the
> issue of whether it should be in it or not. For screen reader users I was
> thinking, maybe even brail users?
>

Meta description is an excellent place for a company description. Before a
user even gets to the site this information will improve the quality of
search engine results (better SEO) and also appear in on the search page,
thus allowing users to select sites better - a major bonus for usability and
accessibility.

However, the meta description must be kept short (not least as it is
truncated by all search engines) so it should really only be a very concise
summary - not really a replacement for the traditional "about us" page.
Also, it never hurts to have the very first paragraph on your homepage
actually say what you do ;)