Accessibility compliance
Accessibility has been a well publicised topic over the last
couple of years so we won't dwell on the reasons why you should
build an accessible web site but simply make the following
points:
- Taking those with sight difficulties as the main example.
According to the Royal National Institute for the Blind there are
some 2 million people registered with sight difficulties in the UK
and that is a sizable audience to potentially exclude to start
with.
- Whereas most would agree that denying a person wheelchair
access to a building is wrong, denying access to an organisation's
web site is equally unfair and discrimanatory.
- You are legally obliged to provide an accessible web site.
In December 1996, the Disability Discrimination Act made it
unlawful to treat a disabled person less favourably than anyone
else. In 2000, the Disability Rights Commisions was set up to
promote and in some cases enforce this legislation.
The Commission publishes a Code of Practice which particularly
refers to online services. The Code states that if web site
operators do not consider disabled users when creating their sites,
then they would be in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.
This Act has given people the required back-up to tackle such an
action.
- An investigation by the Disability Rights Commission and
published in April 2004 showed that 81 percent of UK websites fail
to meet even the most basic accessibility requirements for disabled
people.
- It's easy to make assumptions and find reasons not to make a
site as accessible. For example, while it is obvious that a blind
person can't drive a car, it doesn't mean to say that they aren't
interested in cars.
more information on creating compliant sites