The Nielsen Norman Group — a well-known group of usability experts — is kindly offering a free download of their report titled “Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users With Disabilities.”

You’d normally drop $124 on this report, which details 75 best practices for designing web sites for those with disabilities.

In my opinion, every web site should be designed and coded with accessibility as a consideration. This report will give you the fundamentals and you’ll be able to figure out how your site stacks up. Business owners, download a copy and send it to your designer as their holiday gift.

It’s interesting to me that even sites that should be effective at e-commerce instead succeed at frustrating customers.

Case in point: I clicked over to the eTail 2008 web site last week to look at the agenda to see if I might want to attend. After browsing the site, I saw an advertisement selling the eTail 2007 conference audio presentations.

Interesting, I thought. I can listen to this past year’s conference in the comfort of my home or office. The advertisement led me to this page.

The page asked for my credit card information but made absolutely no mention of a) how much it costs, or b) what I get for my money. Also, the page said to “Complete this form to register for the webcast.” My expectation was that I would receive audio, which usually comes in the form of downloadable MP3s, not a webcast. There was also no mention of if my purchase would allow me to download the presentations to my iPod or if the presentations can only be accessed once online (a “webcast” is typically a streaming file viewed or heard online).

Due to the poorly conceived page, I immediately bailed to try to find that information elsewhere (unsuccessfully).

There’s a lesson in this experience. When selling something, clearly let customers know how much something costs before asking for their payment information. Additionally, you should briefly let them know what they are getting for their money. In the example above, the eTail conference folks might want to set my expectations of the price and product before asking for payment information.

Setting customers expectations before asking for their payment information is not only a best practice, but a way to reduce customer complaints when they don’t get what they expected.