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Improving usability for groups with special requirements can benefit all users. And, of course, it benefits brands.

The term 'accessibility' is often associated with the placement of a ramp alongside a set of steps to enable wheelchair users to enter a building. It's similar on the internet: certain groups of people, such as the blind and elderly, cannot even begin to use a site unless there are certain features there to assist them.

Accessibility is part of usability, but the latter refers more broadly to functionality and ease of navigation for all users. Accessibility specifically involves particular groups of people, often with disabilities, being able to get on a site in the first place and then being able to interact with it in a meaningful way.

The blind and partially sighted, those with dyslexia, or very young and old people will all have their own needs when accessing the internet.

Although these needs are often overlooked by site designers, these people are just as likely, if not more so, to use the internet. For someone who can't see or cannot easily leave their house, the internet can be a godsend.

The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 makes it unlawful to provide a service which is not accessible to everyone and that includes web sites.

Under the act, service providers have had to consider making reasonable adjustments for disabled people, but from next year they will need to make permanent changes. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) estimates that 10 per cent of the population of any country has some kind of disability and it promotes the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which is a set of standards for sites around the world.

Making a web site accessible should not be a dreaded chore; it is in the interest of everyone, from the site owner to the user. Accessibility is simply about good design principles and it doesn't necessarily involve having to make a separate large-print version of your homepage. "If you improve a web site for a disabled group, you will improve it for able-bodied people too," says Marty Carroll, director of usability practice at The Usability Company. "We call that 'universal design'."

Dyslexia

People with dyslexia often have difficulties with visual processing, which can include problems with concentration, sensitivity to light and colour, and slow recognition of pictures such as icons. It can be mild or severe, but it is estimated that 10 per cent of the population shows symptoms of dyslexia.

The good news is that it is something of a leveller when it comes to sites, according to Jon Dodd, projects and research director at usability consultancy Bunnyfoot, which has carried out research in this area. "We've found that people without any kind of disability behave as if they're dyslexic when they are online," Dodd explains. "For instance, they don't like reading, they like supportive imagery, and they don't tend to read sentences - they just read the trigger features." Bunnyfoot has carried out eye-tracking tests on internet users that back this up. What Dodd lists as good web site features for dyslexics might as well be a list of general good design features: clear, concise text, appropriate supportive imagery, good use of white space and typography, and flexibility to change spacing and contrast.

David Pruden, marketing manager of the British Dyslexic Association, agrees with Bunnyfoot's findings. He adds: "We also say to try to make lines of 60 to 80 characters rather than 180, which are hard to track.

That's why newspapers use columns. Everyone, dyslexic or not, behaves a bit like they are dyslexic when they use web sites. Therefore, testing sites on people with dyslexia is the perfect way to optimise them. If someone with severe dyslexia is happy on your site, it's likely that lots of other people will be too.

"People with dyslexia are like a sharp tool for testing," says Dodd. "They'll probably reveal more things. When you fix things that cause problems for dyslexics, you improve them for others."

The elderly

By definition, the elderly are not disabled but signs of ageing often include poor eyesight, even blindness, and mobility problems. In that sense, the elderly would also be covered by the DDA. Figures from Oftel show that 22 per cent of people aged 65-74 have internet access at home, rising to 40 per cent for those in the 55-64 bracket. So, it's worth making these groups of people feel welcome when they access a web site.

The US-based Nielsen Norman Group has carried out extensive research on usability and accessibility for different groups of people, including 'silver surfers'. Some of its recommendations for accommodating older people on the internet are not surprising. "I cannot emphasise enough the need to allow users to increase font size," insists Jakob Nielsen, the group's principal. "It's best not to use a tiny font to begin with, but at the minimum web sites should never freeze the font size. The need for bigger text starts at around the age of 45."

Carroll agrees: "At The Usability Company, we did some testing for a site for older people. Every one of the users, without exception, complained about the size of the font. Older people are the fastest growing segment of the market and increasing font size also increases usability for everyone else."

But it's not just the font. Nielsen points out that people's memory function also deteriorates with age and calls for web sites to be more forgiving and place fewer demands on users' memories. Using different colours for links already visited will prevent users going round in circles by following the same links repeatedly. Fortunately for web site owners, Nielsen Norman Group's research also found that while older people are a bit slower online, they're more likely to patiently work their way through a site, even if it has been poorly designed.

The blind

With two million blind and partially-sighted people in the UK, it is important to make the distinction between the two groups because their needs are different. The blind cannot see the screen at all, so they use technology that reads the content out loud. It doesn't matter what the site looks like; what matters is how it is coded. For example, when you move a cursor over an image, a good site will display a description of it, such as 'Queen Mum' or 'person with shopping trolley'. All of these 'meta tags' are read out loud to the blind, so if a tag just says 'image here' it will not be of much use to the user.

The partially sighted can see but have disturbed vision, so they need a site with good contrast. Like people with dyslexia, they will need the flexibility to adjust colour and text size.

But if a site has been poorly built, will it need a hugely expensive overhaul to make it accessible? Yes and no, says Julie Howell, campaigns officer for accessible internet at the RNIB. "It's hard to retrofit accessibility in any sense, including in a building," she explains. "Retrofitting is expensive, so we try to encourage accessibility from the design phase.

But there are some straightforward things that can be done in a few minutes, which will make a world of difference." For example, banking sites often have a button you click to enter the operation, but they don't label it.

Again, a phone number might be displayed as an image file and not as text, so it won't be read out. These are big hurdles for a blind person, but they are easy to fix.

With a couple of million people in this category, it's worthwhile for online companies to harness their spending power. Tesco has done this successfully with its tesco.com/access site; a separate version of its shopping site which, interestingly, has proven popular with all groups because it's so easy to use.

Howell points out that the blind also use credit cards to make purchases online. "Blind people seem to have less of an issue with leaving their credit card number on a web site," she says. "When you're crossing the road and you're blind, you have to put your trust in someone else, so leaving your credit card number isn't a big issue. What is a big issue is feeling confident about where you're leaving it. Imagine you put your credit card number, 16 digits, in a quantity field by mistake. Confidence is improved by sites with usable and predictable navigation."

Children (aged under 10)

Don't assume that a lack of sophistication is the most important thing when creating online content for children. Dodd has carried out user-testing on children as young as two or three with some interesting results. Eye-tracking tests on the Teletubbies web site showed that children were not necessarily engaged by jazzy animation and could grasp concepts fast.

"What they go for is small, intricate items, maybe slowly moving, such as faces," he says. "When the faces of the Teletubbies arrive they are immediately engaged."

Dodd found that two and a half-year-olds instinctively understood the meaning of the browser icon in the corner of the screen which tracks the loading of the page: the child waited for it to finish before starting to interact with the site. This reveals a degree of sophistication far greater than a simple interest in bright colours. But images are also important because children of such a young age can't read. "A child needs supporting images," says Dodd. "Once you've learnt what the association between an icon and a piece of text is, you don't need the text anymore. You just see the thing that triggers recognition."

The Nielsen Norman Group has also carried out research on children, finding that although they are more impatient than adults there are plenty of similarities. Like adults, children are confused by complex navigation and made-up words and don't like reading too much text. Nielsen Norman's survey also found that children enjoyed some of the best web sites that are aimed at adults, such as Amazon.com.

Most important, though, is the need for age-appropriate content. While children respond positively to well-designed adult sites, when it comes to content aimed specifically at children, they are highly attuned to subtle differences.

"You can't really build a web site for kids in general," adds Nielsen. "You have to make separate content for each age group. In our usability testing, one six-year-old contemptuously said 'this web site is for babies, maybe four or five years old'. Once you're six years old, you don't want that."