Meet Joe Dolson, our newest moderator. When I asked Joe how he’d prefer to be introduced, I had to smile at his reply, “…as an accessible web designer.” Yes, our accessibility guy is himself accessible, responsive and willing to share. :-)

Elizabeth Able: Why accessibility?
Joe Dolson: When I was thinking about quitting my day job and starting my own web design business, I wanted to do something more than just help web entrepreneurs and affiliate marketers clutter the web – I wanted some kind of socially motivating purpose behind my business.

My mother is the executive director of VSA Montana, the Montana state affiliate for VSA Arts – an organization dedicated to making the arts accessible to people with disabilities. This family background has had a huge impact on my work motivations, and makes for a very accessibility-conscious childhood. I’m one of those people who walks into a public bathroom and immediately says “Oh – that sink isn’t accessible; this stall can’t be used by a wheelchair user; that handle should be a lever instead of a knob…”

Elizabeth Able: Can accessible design benefit business-centered SEO?
Joe Dolson: Yes. Yes. Yes. At it’s root, accessibility is about ensuring access to websites for both people and alternate devices. Although in accessibility we talk primarily about devices such as screen readers, accessibility techniques are equally applicable to user agents such as mobile devices and, frankly, search engine spiders.

A frequently stated opinion in accessibility circles is that search robots are your most disabled users: they can’t see your images, can’t use a mouse, and browse without Flash or Javascript enabled. If you make certain that these things won’t stop your users from getting at your content, you’re also ensuring that a spider can find it and get your materials indexed.

Elizabeth: What inspired you to register with Cre8asite Forums?
Joe Dolson: Well, in a name, Bill Slawski. Literally, I was drawn to Cre8asite Forums because of a single post he’d written which was recommended to me, on SEO Books, Papers and Patents.

After reading it, I found myself continuing to browse around… came back a few times in the next few days, then ran across the thread “Do you include accessibility in your web designs.” I got interested, and decided to join – the rest is history.

Elizabeth Able: What are your favorite forum threads?
Joe Dolson: Well, I tend to be interested in threads which cover accessibility and usability in specific case studies.

For example, the thread “Why Was Target the Only One?“, started last October, draws on a huge variety of interesting perspectives and opinions. There’s a general agreement in the discussion that Target needed to rectify their accessibility problems – the focus of the conversation, instead, is on methods to convince corporations to change. It’s also specifically mentioned just how foolish Target is in resisting the demands, when it can’t really be anything but a benefit to their site performance from both a usability and a search marketing perspective!

Another example is “Line Length and Reading Speeds.” This mentions some interesting research and points it out for the membership. The ensuing discussion brings up a number of interesting ideas about line length and what benefits a given length might carry – not to mention the different opinions on the subject!

Elizabeth Able: In your opinion, what, ideally, is the role of a forum like ours?
Joe Dolson: To provide a place where people can have intelligent discussions at all levels of web knowledge.

Some forums can be very unkind to a new member who doesn’t know some fundamental piece of web knowledge – and that’s an extremely unfortunate use of the forum environment. Cre8asite does a fantastic job of treating every question equally. Some questions will be very basic, and a member will stop by and give a very polite (and sometimes very complete) answer. They’ll also welcome the new member to the forum and invite them to tell us more about themselves.

Other questions will be so esoteric that half the members will start off by asking for further explanations!

The point is that both discussions are equal in the eyes of the forum: the discussion asking “what’s a redirect?” is just as interesting and valuable as the discussion debating the semantic value of different types of labeling for accessibility.

Elizabeth Able: What would you like to see more of in our forums or in the web in general?
Joe Dolson: Accessibility :) . I’m an accessibility guy; what else can I say?