"A good heart is worth all the heads in the world"

Want to read something nice today? Check this site out - the Random Acts of Kindness site.

Test the accessibility of your website

The newest way to test website accessibility has been initiated by the Usability Exchange

The Usability Exchange is taking the next step forward to ensure that websites become more accessible to users with disabilities, by offering the first real chance for disabled users and website owners to have real interaction with each other.

Usability Exchange works by allowing website owners to submit their sites for testing by disabled users. It's become the closest thing to a usability testing forum, where people from both sides of the problem - site designers struggling to know how to make their sites better, and users struggling with accessibility of sites - can meet and make their needs known.

Site owners can create tests tailored to specific end user groups, and testers can register for free and carry out tests at a time that suits them. It's the best of all worlds, because sites are being tested not by a dedicated team of users whose job it is, nor by people trying to anticipate what accessibility problems are, but by the people who are in the best position to find the problems.

Usability is becoming more and more of a buzzword for sites now, with people, quite rightly, no longer accepting that some sites are poorly designed, hard to navigate, and in some cases simply unusable. If you're really into it, or want to find out more, visit the Usability Exchange or read the PAS 78 Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites, developed jointly by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and the British Standards Institution.