Today, there is so much competition between web hosting providers. They all pretty much offer the same services and the costs are fairly competitive.

Who has the advantage?

It depends on which 'top ten' web hosting list that you look at. I haven't found one 'top ten' list that rates a website hosting provider on accessibility and usability. After all, the services that they provide are open to everyone, including those with disabilities and the aging population. Or, are they? In the next few years, the baby boomer generation will consist of people who use computers and are not afraid of technology.

READ MORE: Here are SimplyRaydeen.com's picks for the 'Top Ten' web hosting providers, using one easy test for accessibility and usability – the Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE).

“Following the best practices in developing web resources not only improves accessibility for people with disabilities, but also improves interoperability, giving everyone the benefit of having more options for accessing and using those resources.” -- http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/about/

Web Accessibility/Usability: Top 10 Web Hosting Providers -- Rated on: November 22, 2009

The Top 10 Web Hosting Providers were rated on 'Navigation & Orientation' and 'Text Equivalents', (% Pass).

Best Practices Rules Summary Used: http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/about/rules/

• Navigation & Orientation
• Text Equivalents
• Scripting
• Styling
• HTML Standards

JustHost is #1-- JustHost cares about its customers, providing navigation tools and orientation information in pages that will maximize web accessibility and usability.   Congratulations also goes to FatCow, they demonstrate a commitment to not only providing navigation tools and orientation information, but also ensuring  scripting, styling and HTML standards are met.  Although this 'simple test' does not ensure web accessibility and usability to everyone, it is a step in the right direction.  

..............................................................................................................

1. JustHost -- http://www.justhost.com

2. FatCow – http://www.fatcow.com

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

3. InMotion – www.inmotionhosting.com

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

4. GoDaddy – http://www.godaddy.com

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

5. Ix Web Hosting -- http://www.ixwebhosting.com

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

6. HostUpon -- http://www.hostupon.com/

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

7. Green Geeks – http://www.greengeeks.com/

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

8. Blue Hosting – http://www.bluehost.com/

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

9. Dotster -- http://www.dotster.com/

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

10. HostMonster -- http://www.hostmonster.com/

Evaluation Results by Best Practices Main Category

Note: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires disclosure regarding payments that are received for ranking and listing hosting companies on SimplyRaydeen.com.  SimplyRaydeen.com receives $100 for new accounts established via FatCow by following links from here.  However, although we are pleased that FatCow ranked #1 in this rating, its ranking was not based on the fact that FatCow is an affiliation program.

Reference Making Content Understandable and Navigable:

WCAG 1.0 : http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/#context-and-orientation

2.2 Making Content Understandable and Navigable

Content developers should make content understandable and navigable. This includes not only making the language clear and simple, but also providing understandable mechanisms for navigating within and between pages. Providing navigation tools and orientation information in pages will maximize accessibility and usability. Not all users can make use of visual clues such as image maps, proportional scroll bars, side-by-side frames, or graphics that guide sighted users of graphical desktop browsers. Users also lose contextual information when they can only view a portion of a page, either because they are accessing the page one word at a time (speech synthesis or braille display), or one section at a time (small display, or a magnified display). Without orientation information, users may not be able to understand very large tables, lists, menus, etc.

WCAG 2.0 Layers of Guidance: http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/intro.html#introduction-fourprincs-head

Principles - At the top are four principles that provide the foundation for Web accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. See also Understanding the Four Principles of Accessibility.

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