Another common accessibility issue involves the use of graphic icons for site use and navigation. One of the major issues that surfaces is the intuitiveness of graphic images, particularly for students with learning disabilities. A picture is worth a thousand words -- make sure that they are the right ones! While most of your students will eventually get used to icons that might be less than intuitive, it doesn't make a lot of sense to choose icons this way! Consider including descriptive text underneath or besides navigational icons.

Including explanatory descriptive text below or beneath navigational icons, such as imagemaps, also is a good idea to assist students with low vision in using your site. One reason for this is that these students largely depend on being able to enlarge the text in their browser. Since icons cannot be enlarged as well, this may render many graphic icons to be unreadable. This is particularly the case when text is included as part of the graphic icon itself.

Finally, make sure that if you include text as part of a graphic navigational icon that the color of the text and the color of the background contrast well. This will help color blind, dyslexic and low vision students read the text a little easier! For more discussion on the use of color in Web sites, see my tutorial called Considering User Differences: An Alternative Web Design Guide.