Home : Disability : Accessibility : Accessible Website Design By Disabled World - 2009-01-02
Well known website sitemeter.com updated its website on 19/20 th of September 2008 to a new format using flash technology.
Sitemeter is
one of the most popular website statistic programs used by nearly a
million webmasters, bloggers and website owners, including our own
website, Disabled World.
The limited version, or free sitemeter website statistics program,
allows webmasters to add a small piece of code to a website or blog to
measure website statistics such as where their "hits" or traffic is
coming from, what pages and how many a visitor views on the site, plus
many other interesting and valuable pieces of information to any site
owner.
Prior to last weekend, Sitemeter information was output to a static
page where statistics could be read quickly and easily, even by the
vision impaired using screen readers such as Jaws. After the Sitemeter website update the statistics and most of the website is in the Flash format.
According to the Macromedia website, who own and develop the Flash Player, "Adobe
Flash Player is the standard for delivering high-impact, rich Web
content. Designs, animation, and application user interfaces are
deployed immediately across all browsers and platforms, attracting and
engaging users with a rich Web experience."
Flash designs tend to be highly visual, but users who cannot see or
who have low vision need a textual alternative that describes what the
visuals mean for the application. Because Flash has been inaccessible
to many screenreaders until recently, users with disabilities will have
to make sense of an unfamiliar environment that behaves differently
than a static Web page.
Many Flash applications introduce the ability to offer advanced
functionality to a website, this is fine for those not sight impaired,
however users with disabilities often appreciate simplicity, and being
able to navigate a process with less hassle and fewer bells and
whistles.
Maybe the time has come for Disabled World to try an alternative website statistic program such as google analytics.
Disabled World would be interested to hear from vision impaired
persons who use Sitemeter on their blog or website in regards to how
their screen readers handle the new Sitemeter statistic displays.
UPDATE: Sitemeter seems to be having problems. As
of the evening of 14/9/2008 Sitemeter has reverted back to their old
website format and method of displaying website statistics. Sitemeter
reports "Based on some performance issues we were experiencing
along with feedback from the community it appears we have pushed our
new site live prematurely."
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