There is nothing more irritating to a visitor than a site that appears to be trying to control them, either by forcing them down particular paths, of by disabling features of their browser interface.
Here are a couple of examples of the sort of thing I am talking about:
- Opening new windows, so that the original site is still hovering in the background; if the visitor wants to come back to your site they can click the back button and if they want to open a new window they can do it themselves.
- Using scripts to disable the back button, disable right clicking, or subvert some other aspect of the browser interface.
These techniques can decrease accessibility as they go against users expectations about how the web works. I expect to be able to click the back button in my browser to move back to the last page viewed; and I don’t expect my back button to suddenly stop working.
Trying to control the visitors to your site is a bad thing; not only can it make your website less accessible it can also make you seem less credible as an organisation; that’s what happens when things on your site don’t work as expected.
Tags: accessibility, control
Related Content
- How to create accessible emailEmail has become one of the most common ways to communicate. It is a good and economical method of disseminating information to people where they want to receive it. Emails are used for private communication, confirming transactions, newsletters, reminders for appointments, marketing and invitations, to name just ...
- Don’t use the statistics defence as a reason to exclude people from your contentI was recently involved in a discussion about whether website designers should still be expected to accommodate Internet Explorer 6 users. The case against accommodating IE 6 users is invariably backed up with statistics about how few people now use this, admittedly flawed, browser. I've heard 'the statistics defence' (as I ...
- Don’t try to control visitors to your siteThere is nothing more irritating to a visitor than a site that appears to be trying to control them, either by forcing them down particular paths, of by disabling features of their browser interface. Here are a couple of examples of the sort of thing I am talking about: Opening new windows, ...
Take my Web Accessibility Online Training Course - WCAG 2.1 Compliance
Learn to design and manage WCAG compliant, accessible websites with my online course
You will learn both the techniques of accessible website design and an entire ‘framework for thinking about the subject’. It will equip you with the skills to understand, identify and fix issues any accessibility issues you come across. Watch the free videos to get a taste of what is on the course.
)
Working with non-profits, charities, voluntary and public sector organisations and social enterprises for over 20 years. Jim set up one of the worlds first website accessibility web agencies in the mid 1990s.