The Union Solidarity website needs to be rebuilt to ensure the site is more accessible for users with visual impairments and disabilities in general. Not only that the visual appearance of site could be improved.

The process to create an accessible website is basically the following.

1. Make sure the code is valid and correct first.
2. Get the code validated
3. Ensure the page content is accessible, there are a list of guidelines on W3C website
   

The following website has all a number of accessibility links. http://www.vordweb.co.uk/standards/bobby_approved_level_aaa.htm

Three new templates have been created using CSS / XHTML coding techniques outlined in Dan Cederholm's book Bulletproof Web Design.

All templates use a 3 column flexible percentage CSS layout, this enable users to view pages in a browser window from 450px to 2000px. The different templates use different percentages for side menus.

15% left and right menus | 20% left and right menus | 25% left and right menus

Download criteria for template useability: criteria.xls

So far all templates work on a Mac OSX 4.10 on the following browsers

• Mozzilla
• Firefox
• Safari

The templates all validate to XHTML strict standards using the W3C validator.