Almost 8 Million Adults Struggle To Access Web Sites - How To Ensure Your Web Site Meets Accessibility Guidelines
19 January 2010
Public sector and corporate Web sites could be turning away almost 8 million people (17%) if they fail to meet the latest accessibility guidelines.
Almost one sixth of the UK population have health conditions, including blindness or visual impairment, colour blindness, hearing impairment, dyslexia or mobility impairment, which make it difficult for them to access and transact on many Web sites.
With this in mind, public sector and corporate IT, HR and communications managers or directors are today urged to seize the opportunity to review their Web sites against current Web site accessibility standards.
Indeed, with the Central Office of Information's deadline for Delivering Accessible Web sites having come into force for all central government-owned Web sites in December 2009, the clock is ticking.
And a high level of Web site accessibility is of even more importance given the growing numbers of users of assistive technology such as voice activation software, which enables users to navigate Web sites using their voice instead of a keyboard or mouse, as well as the increasing amount of rich video content available on some sites.
For those IT or communications managers wanting to learn about the best ways to ensure their Web site meets accessibility guidelines, consider the following tips:
1. Those responsible for managing an organisation's Web site need to ensure they keep themselves up to date with regular training to make sure their site continues to be accessible to people with disabilities, irrespective of any changes the Web site has undergone since the original build. Web manager or communications managers may find that, even if a Web site met accessibility guidelines when it was first developed, those guidelines may now have changed and the site may now not be of the required accessibility standard.
2. Web site managers, or anyone responsible for updating Web sites, should check that it is possible to use the tab key to go through their Web site. Sites that are not possible to tab through may present a barrier to those people with mobility impairment or users who do not use a mouse. In addition, sometimes the tabs are invisible, which makes it impossible for some users to know 'where they are' on the page.
3. For blind or visually impaired users, Web site managers should ensure their Web site's headings are in the correct order. Headings are there to signpost users to different parts of a Webpage and allow them to navigate through the page, much as headlines in a newspaper allow readers to identify quickly the articles which interest them most. Ideally, headings should be presented in a hierarchical and logical order to enable screenreader users to navigate quickly and efficiently through content.
4. Web site managers should ensure that edit fields in all the forms on their organisation's Web site are labelled clearly. This helps users to know which text needs to be inputted where. For example, an edit field acting as a search field needs to be labelled 'search' to enable Web users - particularly screen reader users - to add text accurately where required.
5. Text transcripts should be available for any video or audio files that are on the Web site to allow deaf users to read and understand all available content. Captioning is also useful for a variety of Web users.
6. Finally, Web site managers should give consideration to the colours used on their Web site as some colour combinations can have an adverse impact on colour blind, visually impaired or low vision users. For example, there should be a strong colour contrast between the text on the page and the background - pink text on a red background, for example, is almost unreadable.
People with certain disabilities can find it difficult or even impossible to access, navigate or read the content of a Web page if the information isn't presented correctly. It's really important to remember that it is a legal requirement for public facing Web sites, intranet and extranets to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and that it also meets the Disability Equality Duty criteria as laid out in the COI's report 'Building Inclusive Web sites'.
