Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Web Accessibility Wednesday: Animation

This is part of a continuing series of web accessibility tips for IT personnel, web managers and web development groups. These tips can be used to review current website accessibility and to utilize in developing new websites with the hope of improving web accessibility for everyone.

Animation or other moving elements on a web page can be distracting to all users. Even simple animation can render a web page completely inaccessible to users with certain cognitive disabilities or high levels of distractibility. Animation should generally be avoided. Brief animations (ones that completely stop in less than 3 seconds), however, can be used to draw attention to important page elements, such as error messages or alerts.
A common use of animation to increase accessibility and usability is the implementation of what is called the Yellow Fade Technique. This technique presents a bright, quickly fading background to important page elements or messages.

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