ldsWebguy recently blogged about the growth of broadband usage. He was very wise, I think, in not overreacting to the unprecedented rates of the growth. We need to continue to remember all the dial-up modem users out there and that they aren’t able to access Internet content at premium speeds.

I think websites sometimes neglect out dial-up friends for at least these two reasons:

1. Those in the web design industry are very likely to be accessing the Internet over broadband connections. Because the creators and authors of Internet websites have such a fast connection to the Internet, they tend to forget how slow downloads take for dial-up users. The content and websites they create are then larger and take longer for dial-up users to download.
2. An increasing number of trend-setting websites sell products, and their customers who can afford their products are the same people who are more likely to afford broadband Internet connections. In free-market enterprise, consumer-producer communication happens monetarily. Thus, those who can afford high-speed Internet also have a louder market voice to commercial Internet content providers.

Only conscious efforts on the part of web designers to keep sites slim and fast will keep the web accessible for everyone.