What led you into web design and what/who convinced you to stay?

I wish that I could say that everything was the result of careful planning, but if truth were told, as with most things that I have done, getting into web design was by accident.

I trained as a fine artist rather than as a graphic designer, but after leaving college I lost sight of what I wanted to do and worked on the edges of the creative industries for ten years. I was involved in the very early days of professional, digital photography. (It seems strange to look back now at the first digital camera back I used as it cost £40,000, had only 4 million pixels and couldn't take a picture of a moving picture in colour.)

I always had the urge to work creatively and I took a job in an advertising and design company.

This was very early in the web's history and I knew very little about what made it work. When our clients asked about the web, I found I had a talent for making things up as I went along and for learning on the job. Some people might say that that?s what I still do today.

In 1998 my family and I sold up and moved to a rural part of the country to try and regain some balance and quality of life, and we?ve been there ever since. Our studio is tiny but in almost ten years there has never been a period where we have not been busy.

There have been times where my motivation has dropped and as a creative rather than a business minded person, I have made a few questionable decisions and poor judgments of character along the way. But the simple truth is, I get a huge amount of personal satisfaction from working on the web, and I can?t imagine doing anything else.

What was the first website you designed?

Although I had worked on sites for clients as part of my agency job, the very first site that was completely 'mine' was a personal site titled Adventures In Malarkey World. It was a hand-drawn illustrated site that I used as a way to teach myself about the web. Strangely the site was picked up by .Net Magazine and it was amazingly awarded Site Of The Month. I'm still not sure how?

You've been designing web accessible sites. What are the biggest accessibility hurdles that web designers encounter in their daily work?

I think that the biggest hurdle that designers face in respect of web accessibility is the belief that designing and developing accessible sites is somehow a big deal.

I am firmly of the opinion that when you design well for the web, use technologies appropriately and code using meaningful markup that wider accessibility comes along for the ride. That is not to say that good markup, CSS and a responsible use of scripting or Flash always makes a site accessible, there are clearly other things that influence accessibility.

Another hurdle may be that web designers view accessibility as a matter of compliance, accreditation or standards. They also sometimes view accessibility as the job of another person such as a consultant or specialist.

But I also believe that web accessibility is not simply the responsibility of web designers and developers, as it is often portrayed. Software vendors, browser vendors and in particular assistive technology developers also have a huge role to play.

Do you think accessibility limits creativity because of its guidelines, or stimulates it forcing web designers to find new approaches?

Firstly a checkbox approach to web accessibility is flawed from the start, and the danger in guidelines is that designers and developers who work to a checklist often stop when ticks are in all the boxes. That is why I always recommend that designers and developers stop trying to achieve accessibility ?standards? such as A or AA and simply do the best job that they can under the circumstances that they find themselves in.

That said; decisions about accessibility should be a part of a designer?s everyday design process. Web accessibility should be as much a part of a web professional?s skill set as meaningful code, CSS or scripting. I would even go so far as to say that if a designer or developer does not consider accessibility as part of their work, then they are not a web professional.

What are the typical web accessibility myths you?ve heard people, and your clients in particular, believing in?

That accessibility involves skills that are difficult to learn. Although making sites truly accessible to a target audience should involve user testing, there are nonetheless many practical techniques that web designers can learn that will make a real difference for people using the sites that we create. That is why this year, Stuff and Nonsense is broadening our training courses and workshops to include 'Practical Web Accessibility For Designers' under the banner of 'Designing For A Beautiful Web'.

In the case of clients, many of the people that I work with know little about accessibility and for those that have, many, particularly in the government sectors, believe that accessibility is a matter of at best conformance or at worst league table performance.

What is the process of creating a site for accessibility?

In my mind there is no such thing as designing an accessible site. If a site does not consider the importance of being accessible to the widest possible audience, through its use of good design, code and use of best practice, then it is not a professional level site. Therefore there are only professional (accessible) sites and non-professional sites.

How do you deal with clients who say they don't care about accessibility as long as the design looks appealing?

Frankly, this has never been an issue and accessibility is never a hurdle in our design process or dealings with customers. We make it plain in all our dealings with our customers, whether in meetings or in the contracts that they sign, that we consider accessibility issues and that it will never interfere with their aesthetic, business or other goals.

Do you think web accessibility should be taught as school?How would that benefit web industry?

I believe that we must bring about the end of institutionalized education in web design and development, and for what I think are good reasons. Institutionalized education is only in part about teaching skills and a large part about attaining a qualification and being ?measured?. In order to be measured, institutions need syllabuses find it impossible to keep pace with the development of web technologies and our understandings about how best to use them. This makes institutionalized education redundant.The best way for designers and developers to learn about the practical steps that they can take to ensure wider accessibility and keep pace with up-to-the-minute thinking about accessibility is to follow blogs and other online publications that are written by people who are the sharp end of accessibility.

How far have we come in understanding the whole web accessibility issue? What is it we still need to work on?

There is obviously still a great deal of work to be done in the accessibility area, particularly as the way that we use sets of technologies such as AJAX is changing so rapidly. But a great deal has been learned and the fact that web designers and developers and their customers are even aware of accessibility concerns is testament to the massive achievements of people such a Joe Clark. We really know very little about how people use the things we build and why they use them. The web is a young, dynamic medium and with our knowledge and technologies constantly changing, we need to adapt very quickly.

Do you relate Web 2.0 and accessibility?

Frankly, not if the evidence of many of the poster-boy sites of Web 2.0 is anything to go by.

You are a designer, author, member of Web Standards Project, W3C?s CSS Working Group and have got at least two profiles (I know of) on Flickr and DeveloperFusion!.. Do you network somewhere else? How do you have time for everything? Is social networking a hobby or a part of a job for you?

You caught me by surprise there. I have no idea what DeveloperFusion is, and if I ever did, I?ve forgotten. I am a member of the Web Standards Project and also an Invited Expert to the W3C?s CSS working group. To be frank, I have contributed far less to both of them than I would like, and I do feel guilty about that.However running a business, earning money and funding my lavish, playboy lifestyle has to take priority over voluntary work. I?m sure I'm not the only member of WaSP or other voluntary organizations that struggles with balancing work and voluntary activities, and I imagine that it?s a common problem for those voluntary organizations.

On the subject of social networks, I try many of the services that I get invited to, but I've never seen the appeal of MySpace or Facebook. Flickr and Twitter on the other hand are my ways of keeping in touch with my friends and work contacts without having to stray too far from my penthouse, playboy apartment.

What are a few websites you admire and why?

I love the way that Jeffrey Zeldman keeps zeldman.com fresh and interesting. Even when other people have little to say, Jeffrey publishes something that makes you think. His writing is also exquisite, a real reminder of how to write.

I also adore Twitter as it has taken a seemingly pointless idea and made it as much a part of my life as entertaining super models. I have tried other variants such as Pownce that are better looking than Twitter and have a slightly different purpose, but somehow the original is still the best.

What industry sites/blogs/magazines do you read regularly?

A quick run-down:

- A List Apart

- Think Vitamin

- Zeldman.com

- 456 Berea Street

- and of course my pant wearing, Britpack chums.

You've been in web design for 10 years. What?s your plan for the next decade?

I can't really imagine doing anything dramatically different in the next few years and I hope that my customers will still be asking me to work so that can happen.

I do hope that technologies will continue to evolve so that I will be less dependent on working from one base as I'd love to travel and to be able to work from anywhere I choose (perhaps from my yacht in the south of France?)

Of course, that all might change tomorrow if Paul Weller gets on the phone and asks me to do anything? really.

Thank you, Andy, for the interview!

Helen Walker

Helen Walker graduated with a degree in Mass Communications and Sociology. She worked as a newspaper journalist for two years after that. Having always been interested in cyberculture and its impact on society, Helen switched to online journalism and joined Design Interviews blog in July, 2007. Ever since she's been interviewing web designers and administrating the blog. Helen is a keen movie-goer and she is also a panda lover.


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Get in touch with Helen: helen.walker4@gmail.com