Internet speed and web accessibility

Saturday 26th September 2009

According to a report conducted by the Office for National Statistics (PDF 123kb), 16.5m households now have broadband access which is an increase from 6.6m in 2006. This is great news for web designers and web application developers who need to deliver a top quality experience to their end users without compromising too much on functionality. However, it doesn't mean they should forget about users with a slow internet connection.

The age-old issue of making a web site or web application accessible to everyone is still a big challenge today, especially in relation to internet speed. Designers and developers understandably want to provide slick and user-friendly experiences but this often means using web technologies that require a fast internet connection, like video or JavaScript-powered applications. It's would be very easy to ignore a potentially large share of the market by not considering users on devices with slow connection speeds (like mobiles) or users in developing countries who are faced with geographic limitations.

So it's a great to see forward-thinking from the likes of Facebook who recently lanched a lightweight version of their extremely popular social site. It's called Facebook Lite and perfectly illustrates how inclusion is possible, for even the most demanding web applications.

broadband, internet access, slow, web applications, Facebook Lite

posted by Blair Millen in the category: accessibility