[background] [fonts] [images] [hints] 

Background

Choose a fairly neutral background colour. Avoid green/red colour schemes as they cannot be seen by anyone who is colour blind. (You can see colour safe palettes for colour blindness at: http://www.visibone.com/colorblind/)

To enable partially sighted users to see your site ensure that there is a good contrast between background colour and text colour and don't use dominate textures, patterns or images. 

There is a good discussion on accessibility on the RNIB web site at: http://www.rnib.org.uk/digital/hints.htm

Fonts

Decide on which fonts you are going to use in your web site at the beginning. If you don't, your web site will look tatty with the use of numerous (and some unreadable) fonts. 

Choose fonts which are similar to those on your headed note paper. However only certain fonts are web friendly and can be seen by all browsers. Web friendly fonts include:

Ariel, Times Roman and Verdana

To use other fonts you will need to use graphics. Use these sparingly as they are not seen by the Search Engines and may not be "seen" by some users.

Don't use italic text - this looks "wobberly" to partially sighted users

Don't underline large blocks of text - some people find them difficult to read

Don't use Capitalisation of whole sentences - it is considered SHOUTING

Images

Do use photos and drawings. They often make a school web site.

Do look at the Health & Safety section on the use of photos on schools web sites

Do use an ALT tag with your images - this will enable partially sighted visitors to know what your image is about

Do reduce the dimensions and file size of your photos and drawings to enable a fast download time

Hints

1. Decide first what you are wanting to achieve with your web site - 

2. Decide:

who your web site is for  - is it for parents, learners or teachers?

who is going to contribute?

who is going to maintain it?

3. Plan your web site on paper including all the links before you start

4. Decide on which fonts you are going to use.

4. Don't put too much information on the Home page or overload it with graphics

5. Keep it Simple (KIS)!

6. Look at other people's work - everyone has been on the same learning curve at some point. A good starting point is other school web sites to see how they have solved the same problems as you. Why not look at the school web sites section of this web site?

7. Look at web sites which offer hints on design such as:

Joe's Beginner's Hints & Tips - the basics are explained and lists useful sites for downloading tools

Australian Home Page Construction Kit - hints, tips and useful links

Dmitry Kirsanov - tutorials on web page design, layout and graphics