You would not want to turn a potential customer away from your door would you? This is what many businesses are doing with their websites! Website accessibility is exactly what it says it is Accessible that means a website should be useable no matter what web browser is being used, screen resolution, type of hardware or disability that someone has while viewing your site.
If a visitor to your website finds your site easy to use then they are far more likely to return to your site again and again or if you sell products on your website they will be far more likely to buy from you as apposed to a competitor’s website that is more difficult to use.
The number of people who have disabilities worldwide is significant. In America alone, it is estimated that 54 million people have a disability. Paying attention to accessibility means you are less likely to miss out on a large section of the market.
A number of the bigger search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN take accessibility very seriously and take accessibility into account when indexing websites. This means that an accessible site has a far better chance of getting to the top of the search indexes that an inaccessible one.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and is widely regarded as the international standard for web accessibility.
Conformance means that web content satisfies the success criteria as defined in the WCAG.
Success criteria are organised into three levels of conformance.
Note: Some guidelines do not contain level 1 success criteria, and others do not contain level 2 success criteria.
More detail about this can be read in the WCAG 2.0 Documents.
Section 508 is an amendment to the US Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 508requires that electronic and information technology that is developed, purchased or maintained by the US Federal Government is accessible by people with disabilities.
Although Section 508 is aimed squarely at the US Federal Government many privately owned websites conform to its standards as a matter of good business practice.
Part III of the DDA refers to the provision of goods, facilities and services. The Code of Practice, which refers to websites, can be downloaded from the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) website.
It is a common misunderstanding that the new laws came into force in October 2004, when the final part of the DDA was implemented. This final section of legislation did not relate to the internet in any way.
The sections that do relate to websites came into force on 1st October 1999. This means that most websites have been in breach of the law for over 5 years! The DRC formal investigation into web accessibility stated “Most websites (81%) fail to satisfy the most basic Web Accessibility Initiative category”.
In one word Yes, The RNIB has already approached two large companies with regard to the accessibility of their websites, both companies made the necessary changes, rather then face the prospect of legal action under the DDA.
It’s widely believed that if, or when a case makes it to court that the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WACG) will be used to assess a website’s accessibility and decide the outcome of the case. The DRC issued a warning that organisations will face legal action under the DDA and the possibility of unlimited compensation payments if they fail to comply with accessibility standards.
The EU recommended level of compliance is that a website should adhere to the W3C WIA WACG Priority 2 checkpoint