"Tina - AffordableHOST, Inc." <tina@affordablehost.com> wrote in message
10qognbc1rte0ba@corp.supernews.com">news:10qognbc1rte0ba@corp.supernews.com...
> "Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@schestowitz.com> wrote in message
> cohduf$r90$1@godfrey.mcc.ac.uk">news:cohduf$r90$1@godfrey.mcc.ac.uk...
> > Barbara de Zoete wrote:
> >
> >> [F'up set to ciwas-d]
> >>
> >> I am getting more and more confused as to the meaning of the words
> >> 'accessibility' and 'usability' *in the context of the world wide web*.
> >> What do these two words mean? How do they differ from one another?
Where
> >> does the meaning overlap, if it does? Where do they perhaps conflict
with
> >> one another, if they do?
> >>
> >> Can anyone please explain to someone who is not native speaking, nor
> >> fluent in English?
> >
> > Accessibility is concerned with design that accommodates the need of
> > disabled people (usually). For example, if you are near-sighted or blind
> > (and hence _listen_ to Web pages), you want the page to have properties
> > that make it friendly to you.
> >
> > Accessibility is a subset of usability, I suppose. It is one aspect that
> > makes a page easier to _use_, by all audiences. This leads to the
> > definition of 'usability'. Usability can be explained in terms of ease
of
> > navigation (How do I get to...), good context (where am I inside the Web
> > site?), etc.
>
>
> I would actually define usability closer to what you've described as
> accessibility. Accessibility simply being whether or not you can
actually
> access the website.
That's the plain meaning of the word. But in the context of the Web, and I
suppose in user interface design in general, "accessibility" has taken on
the specific meaning explained by Roy, euphemistic as it is, and that's how
it's now generally understood.
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