Three levels of access

The science of communication states that there are three types of access to information that occurs:

• Physical access - a users ability to quickly and easily find the information, service or product they are looking for;
• Intellectual access - a users ability to understand and act on information once they have found that information.; and
• Emotional access - the way a user responds to information they have found and understood.

The lower the impediments to physical, intellectual and emotional access the more effective the communication.

Applied to websites

Physical access in relation to websites is all about technical and structural design whereas intellectual and emotional access is more about content than structure or technology.

Typical website problems with physical access include:

• the use of features that are only supported by the latest browsers. This includes things like the use of plugins or ActiveX controls that must be downloaded by users before certain content will display;
• web pages that contain a large amount of data and are slow to download and even slower to read through;
• page layouts that rely on a user having a certain sized screen. This often results in users with small screens not being able to see all of the information presented and users with large screens not being able to take advantage of their extra screen size;

Intellectual access problems in relation to websites are usually caused by jargon or technical language. Most frequently the jargon is computer related especially where the IT department is also responsible for the content. However, the "nerds" are not always to blame.

Intellectual accessability is greatly increased by adopting a plain language approach to all website content and one of the best places to start is with the words or phrases used in a website's menus and navigation links. Many website menus are filled with buzzwords or ambigous terms that leave most users guessing about what content is behind the menu item.

If your users are busy people they will get seriously annoyed if they are forced to go into off-topic pages to confirm it is not what they are looking for.

A website will satisfy the requirements of emotional access if its users positively respond to the way in which the site's content is provided. Put another way, information should be presented in a way that will not offend users.

One way that a website can create emotional issues is as a result of cultural differences. The global reach of the Internet means that the impact of cultural differences on emotional access is a real issue. The way information is presented, organised and expressed on a website should not rely on particular local customs or expressions if the site is intended to have a true global reach.

Further information

For further information see the Web Content Accessability Guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium at www.w3c.org/tr/wai-webcontent/ .