[Athen] Are shorter URLs an accessibility feature?

[Evan S Yamanishi]

Hi Todd,

Could you clarify what you mean by top level domain URL? Normally top level domain refers to the .com, .edu, .org, etc., and I'd be surprised if a student disability group wanted to change that. Refer to this Anatomy of a URL infographic if you're unsure of what all the parts are called: http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/img_uploads/anatomy-of-a-url.jpg.

URLs are meant to be descriptive and meaningful. The only reason URLs are constructed the way they are is so that humans can read them, so it makes sense to make them as human-readable as possible, and that's definitely an accessibility concern.

Evan Yamanishi
Coordinator of Reader Services
Office of Disability Support Services
Lansing Community College
(517) 483-5263


-----Original Message-----
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Weissenberger, Todd M
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2014 3:28 PM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Are shorter URLs an accessibility feature?




One of our student disability groups on campus is creating a new website, and they would like to use a top level domain URL. Their rationale is that a simpler URL could provide an accessibility boost due to its simplicity and brevity. 

The university hostmaster is resisting this request in the name of keeping DNS simple.

Has anybody considered this before?  Does it make any sense?


Thanks,
Todd
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