Earlier, we wrote about the news that Google Labs has a new beta product out, the Accessible Search. This is a very useful tool for Google users who are visually impaired. You will notice that the search results are in a very basic design. There are no images, and the color scheme is very basic.

We think this is a good move on Google’s part. This should also encourage bloggers and webmasters to focus on designing with Accessibility in mind. And we don’t mean scrapping the images and other design elements. We simply mean that an accessible site should be easy to use both for people with normal (or adequate) vision and those that are visually-impaired. One added benefit of designing with accessibility in mind is search engine optimization. Keep in mind that what’s easy for a text-reader to read will also be easy for google crawlers to read.

Here are some tips to get you an advantage on Accessible search.

• Use properly formed XHTML. Proper markup means the system will not have to struggle through broken or unclosed HTML tags.
• Separate design from content. Using CSS to lay out your site instead of tables (or worse–frames!) will help text-readers more easily “read” your content and subsequently read these out to visually-impaired users.
• Minimize the use of images for navigation. It’s best to use plain text links for navigation, and not drop-down or pull-down menus based on scripting.
• Label your images. Visually-impaired users might not see your images, so it’s best to label these using alt tags (such as alt=”description of image”) within the IMG tag.