Answers to the questions

Computers and software have enabled individuals to become one-person operations with an Internet connection and a laptop – as has web site design. I don’t think that it’s always a good thing, but I definitely think that the pros outweigh the cons. The pros are that it doesn’t cost much to create a web site, and therefore people all over the world can post pictures of their family, hobbies, or other interests they may have. In many cases these sites may be poorly designed, but look at the audience, and I’m that most people are not that concerned about this. When it’s that easy to create web pages, it also gets many more ideas out on the web, and can get creative people recognized. This creativity and/or entrepreneurship can help people make a living. Another pro is that it’s fairly cheap for businesses to have a presence on the web (but depending on the design on the site, this may be a con). On the con side, you could also have people create these business sites that look legitimate, when in fact they may be trying to rip you off. Another con might be that a very good company out on the web might have a very poor web site, and they could lose business because of a potential client never wanting to contact or use the business because of how the person portrayed the company – based on the web site.

The advantage of creating your own web site is that it will cost you a lot less money than paying someone else to do it. However, if you are not that artistic, and the site is for your business you may want to consider spending the extra money to create the site – as the site is a reflection of your business. If you have a poorly designed site, this may steer potential customers away from your business and site. In the end, it all depends how the site will be used.

The difference between usability and accessibility is that usability is how easy it is to navigate a web site, whereas accessibility is the ability of the web site to be accessible for people with disabilities. To make a site “highly accessible,” one needs to ensure that a person with disabilities has a good user experience when accessing the site. People with disabilities use screen readers, and therefore to have a good accessible site means that the web page titles, alt text for images, and other things on the web site to make effective use of the screen readers.