Access

Web Accessibility

Web accessibility is about making websites usable by all internet users (both disabled and non-disabled), regardless of what browsing technology they are using. In order to do this they must be able to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web.

The aim of web accessibility is to "provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities" (W3.org).

Why should I make my website accessible?

Consider these figures:

Over 10 million disabled people in the UK (With an estimated disposal income of £50 billion);
2 million UK residents with sight problems;
12 million people aged 60 or over in the UK;
36% (3 million plus users) of disabled people use the internet (Source: Guardian Newspaper).

Add these numbers up and that equates to a lot of people who could potentially face problems with your websites accessibility.

Who else is affected?

It's not just disabled people who may not be able to access your website. Is your site setup so that it only works with the latest version (or the latest version at the time!) of Internet Explorer? Not everyone is viewing your website on the latest version, with all the plug-ins such as Flash or JavaScript that you may require them to have. What about temporary disabilities such as a broken arm or hand? They can also affect users so accessibility needs to cover a wide variety of scenarios.

Perhaps you're thinking they're not my target audience. What happens if one of your top paying customer develops a repetitive strain injury (RSI) and is unable to use a mouse? Can they still browse your site just by using the keyboard? If your site is accessible then the answer is yes.

Try some quick accessibility tests on a website to see how accessible it is:

Unplug your mouse and just use your keyboard for navigation: tab key to skip between links and the return key to select;
Disable scripts in your browser settings;
download and install a screen reader and then blindfold yourself and see how you get on.

The Law

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 is a piece of legislation that promotes civil rights for disabled people and protects disabled people from discrimination. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law, and as such must be made accessible to everyone. The DDA says you should take 'reasonable steps' to supply your business services or products to disabled persons. (i.e. A disabled person must not be treated less favourably than anyone else).

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) is an extension of the DDA and establishes legal rights for disabled students in education. If your website is to be used in this environment then SENDA will also apply to your service.

Which groups are covered?

Visual: blindness, low vision and colour blindness;
Motor/Mobility;
Auditory: deafness and hard of hearing;
Seizures;
Cognitive/Neurological: Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Intellectual Disabilities, Memory Impairment, Mental Health Disabilities.

How do these groups access the web?

Switch access: A large button with trailing 3.5mm jack plug Individuals living with a disability can use assistive technologies (AT) to enable and assist them whenweb browsing. Examples of AT are:

Screen readers: software which can read out text (or everything happening on a computer) in a computerised voice;
Screen magnifiers;
Text-to-speech;
Keyboards;
Switch access: replaces the need to use a computer keyboard or a mouse.

These are only a few of the many ways in which people choose to access the web. A useful document, 'How People with Disabilities Use the Web', produced by W3C may help with understanding these technologies further.

How do I make my website accessible?

W3C have issued guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0) which explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. The guidelines are intended for all web content developers (page authors and site designers). These guidelines consider such things as:

Text alternatives for images;
Time-based media such as video;
Contrasting colours;
Keyboard accessibility;
Flashing images;
Navigation;
Headings;
Forms;
Links.

One word of caution: WCAG 2.0 is not the easiest document to read (i.e. it's not the most accessible item you'll come across! A bit ironic really.) and so its best starting off with the WCAG 1.0 which was replaced by WCAG 2.0 in 2009. It's still relevant and if your website meets all the criteria then it should pass WCAG 2.0. In my opinion WCAG 1.0 is a better set of guidelines.

You may also like to look at BS (British Standard) 8878: Web accessibility, code of practice. It gives guidance on process, rather than on technical and design issues, including recommendations for:

Involving disabled people in the development process and using automated tools to assist with accessibility testing
The management of the guidance and process for upholding existing accessibility guidelines and specifications.

The new British Standard BS8878 for accessible websites is based on PAS (Publicly Available Specification) 78.

To summarise

Research has shown that by designing interfaces accessible to people with disabilities, you make it more accessible to all users. Accessibility helps improve the quality of life for millions of disabled users. Keeping our websites open to everyone, ensures a strong marketplace and that enriches the experience of all users as well as meeting the goals of the website owner.

In my opinion, web accessibility is not just a 'ticky box' exercise and you should put yourself in the mind of the user. i.e. When you add an image to a page does it need some descriptive text or not? Some web designers take the guidelines word for word and describe every image even if it is decorative. So, what's wrong with this? You have to think why the alternative text is required, it's for screen readers. So, a user with this technology doesn't really care about a decorative image of a card holder (as shown at the start of this page) since it wont give them any information and only acts to slow them down with their reading.

Reasons for web accessibility:

It's morally right;
It makes economic sense;
Good for public relations;
Your website will display correctly on various browsers.
It's the law;