Browsing Modes
There are two kinds of web-browsing software: text-only and graphical.
Text-only browsers
Who uses text-based browsers?
- Users with older personal computers that do not support current graphical user interfaces.
- Users who subscribe to some community networks.
- Users who connect to the Internet via dumb-terminals through mainframe or mini-computers.
- Users with visual impairments, especially blindness (because there are still more effective, less expensive tools to read information from text-based applications than from graphical programs).
Graphical Browsers
If you use a graphical Web browser, you can view a web site with in-line graphic images displayed or ignored.
Who uses graphical browsers with in-line graphic images not displayed?
Users with slow modems who find that highly graphical sites take too long to display.
Users who pay high connect-time charges with their service providers.
Users who are more interested in content than presentation.
Users with visual impairments who cannot easily see the graphical design, and whose screen-reading tools can only interpret the plain text on a Web page.
Many of your site visitors maybe using graphical browsers, but which one, and how?
There are many graphical browsers available, each supporting a wide range of features, but rarely the same set of features as other, competing packages. There may even be many versions of a particular browser in use, with only the latest version supporting the most recent features of web page design. Some of the most up-to-date browsers only work on the most recent operating system releases.
So, taking all of the above into account, it simply makes sense to maximise your web audience by maximising the accessibility of your site.