Accessibility

Making your website accessible to the disabled makes sense from a business perspective by making your site available to the largest possible audience. It also ensures that you are not discriminating against anyone in society and are conforming with the law.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility simply means that all of the information, services and resources provided on a website are available to all users, regardless of ability. The web is making tasks that were previously difficult for some users, such as shopping and studying, far easier. Thanks to innovative browsers and specialised hardware, disabled users can now actively access Internet services. One example of such technology is a browser-based ‘screen reader’ which reads the site out loud to the end user. However, the site needs to be designed and implemented in a way that will allow these kinds of assistive technologies to operate effectively.

There are three main reasons why leading organisations are building accessibility into their websites:

1. Legal Compliance

Under the UK Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), services that are provided online must be made accessible to disabled users. Any legal action based on the DDA will have a significant legal and PR cost.

The purpose of the DDA is to prevent direct discrimination against disabled people. In summary, the duties of service providers under the DDA include the following:

• It is unlawful for service providers to treat people less favourably for a reason related to their impairment
  
• Service providers have to make "reasonable adjustments" for disabled people, such as providing extra help or making changes to the way they provide their services.

A ‘service provider’ includes anyone providing a service directly to the general public, whether a public authority, private agency or an individual, and whether for payment or for free.

For full details, please refer to the Disability Discrimination Act.

2. Appealing to a wider market

According to the Office for National Statistics, there are approximately 8.5 million disabled people in the UK. An inaccessible website shuts out many of these people as potential customers.

3. Social Responsibility

It’s simply the right thing to do. With a little effort and no additional cost in the design and implementation stage, organisations can improve the lives of those with disabilities. There are also the potential PR benefits that such an approach will provide.

Up until recently, most websites were not designed with accessibility in mind. However, more organisations are beginning to realise the sound commercial benefits of making their sites both accessible and usable. One of the myths concerning accessibility is that sites that are accessible will have no visual appeal. Recent efforts by some leading organisations are showing that there does not need to be a trade-off between aesthetic design and accessibility.

How do I achieve accessibility?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed a set of accessibility design guidelines as part of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which has become the industry standard. The WAI guidelines are divided into three priorities:

WCAG – Priority 1 – for accessibility a web content developer must satisfy these checkpoints

WCAG – Priority 2 – for accessibility a web content developer should satisfy these checkpoints

WCAG – Priority 3 – for accessibility a web content developer may address these checkpoints.

The actual WCAG priority adopted by an organisation will depend on that organisation’s unique set of circumstances.

Complying with accessibility issues does not mean that a website cannot be feature rich and interesting. Complying with accessibility still allows the use of graphics, scripts, applets and plug-in features, although more thought is required and accessible alternatives may need to be provided.

How can Activedition help?

Activedition helps to ensure that content contributors deliver and maintain accessible content through a range of in-built features. We have looked at every checkpoint within the WAI and thought long and hard about how a content management system can and should assist. The result is a solution that provides the platform to deliver websites at the highest accessibility levels:

• Accessible multimedia ALT & long description support
  
• In-context editing support span, acronym, quote, block quote, special characters
  
• No reliance on assistive technologies, eg Javascript
  
• Liquid layout & relative sizing of text via stylesheets
  
• Forms labels, tab order, default values, client & server side checking
  
• Data tables with caption, summary, row & column header support
  
• Hyperlink access keys and title support
  
• Accessible navigation components menu system, site map, site search, breadcrumb trail
  
• Spell checker on site search
  
• Alternative search facilities
  
• Template validation
  
• CSS2 based layout support
  
• Production of valid HTML 4 or XHTML 1

For more information on Accessibility and to ensure ongoing compliance, download the Activedition & Accessibility white paper.

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