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Re: Are shorter URLs an accessibility feature?

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Jun 16, 2014 1:29PM

For a mobility impaired user (or myself using Voiceover with on-screen
iOS keyboard, at an average speed of 3 words a week), it may sound
tempting and accessible on the surface.
But the problem with shortened URLs is that you are very unlikely to
get an easy-to-remember, or intuitive URL. There is a lot to be said
for intuitive URLs in general, some say it is a form of accessibility,
though I would not go that far necessarily, as long as the page titles
are descriptive.
Also a user will generally get to that page either via bookmark (if
frequently used) or via an external link, such as from another
website/web search.
So I do not see pure accessibility value in short (particularly
shortened) URLs as such.
I definitely fail to see how WCAG could be made relevant to this idea.

Cheers
-B

On 6/16/14, Weissenberger, Todd M < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> One of our student disability groups on campus is creating a new website,
> and they would like to use a top level domain URL. Their rationale is that a
> simpler URL could provide an accessibility boost due to its simplicity and
> brevity.
>
> Our university hostmaster is resisting this request, as the resource is
> linkable from other sites on campus.
>
> Has anybody considered this before? Does it make any sense?
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
> > > >


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