Getting started with practical web accessibility, section 2 Demonstration: an analysis of a page:

The page considered: a page by WHO

We will here apply the rules to the FAQ (answers to Frequently Asked Questions) about a chemical compound, by the World Health Organization (WHO). Of course, by the time you read this, the page might be quite different; for your reference, I have created a a copy of the WHO page as analyzed here. There is also an archive copy at webarchive.org.

The analysis here will consider both specific issues on this very page and the general design of WHO pages reflected in it.

The page URL is http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/chem/acrylamide_faqs/en/. We mention this because URLs are an accessibility issue, too. Although a URL is technically just a string that acts as an address of a resource, it will often be seen by users and perhaps copied, sometimes even by hand. Thus, it should be fairly understandable and short. In this case, the part /foodsafety/publications/chem in the path reflects the site’s technical organization, instead of the page content and purpose.

The page appearance, on Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) in full screen mode, is the following:

(Image: screen shot of the page discussed)