Having spent many years learning how to develop and programme website, I have just been introduced to Rapidweaver - a Mac programme that takes all the pain out of web development. You chose themes for all the pages, chose the types of pages you want to include and hey-presto, you have a website appearing infront of your eyes. Publish it onto your host (or .mac space) and you are online.

I teach a course called Web Design For The Terrified, but I won't tell them about this programme. For one, many people don't have Macs, and secondly, people still need to learn how to do the develoment process (that should keep me in a job).

Web design itself is a dying art, there are many people out there who dabble in it, but trade as professionals. just look at the spelling mistakes, the poor designs and deplorable navigation. You can expect this from amateurs, but not from people taking money from companies and individuals.

Another issue that is close to my heart is the accessibility of websites. The recent law called the Disability Discrimination Act, relates to disabled access to buildings, product and services, and this includes Websites. Most of the FTSE100 companies are way off complying with this law, although many claim that one of their sites is compliant, and therefore claim that this applies to all of them!

In the same way that there are the amateurs providing web design, there are some companies who are claiming to provide 'International Accessibility audits'. The ISO have only recently brought out guidelines, and all these companies providing Accessibility audits are using the WAI standards - freely available on the web. I have set up a site (in development at the moment) called DDA Audit, as I am as capable as the next to audit a website, and my certification is as authoritative as anyone elses. In fact, because I also audit the e-marketing as a whole, I can bring my extensive e-marketing experience to bear on advising companies and website owners.

If you are employing a web designer to build you a site, they should not charge you any extra to build a DDA compatible site - not doing so is ILLEGAL. If they don't understand the legislation, or the techniques, my advise is to find another developer. Contact me if you get stuck, I know a number of very good, professional developers who understand the techniques and issues.