What is website accessibility?
One of the purposes of the Argento Media blog is to inform and educate our clients so they can make better decisions when it comes to planning and managing their on-line business. Website accessibility, surprisingly, is one of the key areas that many businesses still overlook. Before I delve into this subject further however it’s important to quickly explain what website accessibility is. Wikipedia puts it perfectly.
“Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.”
The Disability Discrimination Act and website accessibility
Now many companies are already familiar with the Disability Discrimination Act ( DDA) as in 1995 as the DDA ordered service providers to make “reasonable adjustments” to the physical features of their premises to ensure the services they provide are accessible to people with disabilities. The 175 page code of practice for the DDA published in May 2002 also specifically mentions websites. These relevant sections are included below.
- 2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13): “What services are affected by the Disability Discrimination Act? An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the act.”
- 5.23 (p71): “For people with visual impairments, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include … accessible websites.”
- 5.26 (p68): “For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include … accessible websites.”
The Web Accessibility Initiative, a project by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 1.0. These have now been widely accepted as the definitive guidelines on how to create accessible websites and web designers and developers have clear guidance as to how to achieve this.
The good news for companies is that they are not expected to get everything to the highest level of accessibility straight away as the WCAG has three levels of accessibility that can be achieved. These as as follows.
- Conformance Level “A”: A standard that all website must achieve
- Conformance Level “Double-A”: The standard that all website should achieve.
- Conformance Level “Triple-A”: The very highest level of accessibility that may be achieved.
Any credible web designer should have no problem either retrofitting an existing website or adding these accessibility features to a new website as all companies are initially required to achieve is Conformance Level “A”. A word of warning though, the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) are actively investigating over 1000 companies over non-compliance so its better to act sooner rather than later.
The Benefits of website accessibility
Now the DDA states that only websites providing services to the public are bound by the DDA so many B2B companies will feel that the DDA doesn’t apply to them and therefore do nothing. Opting to do nothing could however harm your your on-line business as there are great reasons for designing with accessibility in mind. Building an accessibility provides some significant benefits which include;
- Cheaper development costs as speed of development and updates are increased.
- Future compatibilitywith new browsers, PDA’s and mobile devices. Therefore fewer rebuild/redesigns should be needed in the future.
- Better Search Engine rankings. Accessibility website feature less markup and are more attractive to search engines as a result.
- Improved audience reach.
The last point is something that is crucially overlooked. There are 8.6 million registered disabled people in the UK , totaling 14% of the population (Source: Disability Rights Commission). Two million people in the UK have sight problems and 9% have some form of colour blindness (Source: Institution of Electrical Engineers). There are also 12 million people aged 60 or over, some 21% of the UK population (Source: UK Government). This eventually means that 48% of the population of the UK, not to mention those of other countries could potentially face problems using a website that does not comply with accessibility guidelines. Producing an accessible website could gain you important commercial benefits in the shape of many new customers.
Argento Media ensures that all new websites reach Conformance Level “A” and many websites in reality conform to Level “Double-A”. We are passionate about making the web accessible to all and making the web a better place. If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article then please get in touch.
