Web accessibility

Accessibility isn't a quick fix solution

UK legislation (UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995) requires websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. Companies could face legal action if their web site is found to be in breach of this law, and best estimates suggest that 80% of current websites fall short.

Aside from legal considerations, it has always been good practice to develop websites that can be used by everyone, regardless of disability, technology or other factors. There are guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) for creating accessible web content.

An obvious example would be web users who are visually impaired. Text must be able to be enlarged and have sufficient contrast against its background. Images must have descriptive tags. But such considerations are just the start. Provision must be made for individuals with manual dexterity difficulties, such as multiple sclerosis or arthritis sufferers, who may have difficulty using a mouse. Other users, such as dyslexia or ADD sufferers require clearly presented information and navigation. If a site has audio content, a text alternative should be provided.

There are other more fundamental issues. The internet is a rapidly developing medium and new technology appears almost daily. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is with web browsers. Internet Explorer remains the majority choice, although many users do not use the most up-to-date version. In addition, there are now several other browsers in use and different versions of each. Each interpret data in a slightly different way. People view the internet at work, at home, via mobile 'phone and other devices, each display websites in a different way. And that is before we consider website technology such as Flash, javascript and the like.

In brief, a failure to address accessibility issues means your website could miss a large proportion of your potential marketplace. Using WAI guidelines, we aim to attain AAA rating (their highest standard, and well above industry standard) with all of our websites.