by Sali Earls
Web accessibility is about making your website available and accessible to
all internet users, whether they are able bodied or have a disability or other impairment, regardless of the web browsing
technology they are using. In addition to meeting the requirements of the law, and taking your moral and social responsibilities as a business owner seriously, an accessible website can be extremely
beneficial to your company, giving you access to a potentially lucrative market.
According to the Disability Rights Commission, the term "disabled person" covers people with a wide range of disabilities and health conditions, from visual impairment to arthritis, cancer, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, depression, Downs Syndrome and diabetes. Statistics show us that there are over 10 million people meeting these criteria in the UK, and the combined annual spending power of disabled adults is around £80 billion.
Since 1999, it has been a legal requirement for businesses to "take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services", including websites. April 2004 saw the publication of the report "The Web: Access and Inclusion for Disabled People" by the Disability Rights Commission. It investigated the accessibility of 1,000 British websites and revealed 81% failed to meet minimum standards for disabled web access. The survey also found that the average home page contained 108 barriers that make it impossible or very difficult for disabled people to use.
In response to recommendations made in the report, PAS 78, the "Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites", was published in March of 2006 by the Disability Rights Commission and BSi. The comprehensive guide covers key areas that those responsible for authorising or maintaining public facing websites or web based services should consider, including the development of accessibility policies, the involvement of disabled people and conformance checking.
By using PAS 78, companies can benefit from compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA); create accessible websites and improve search engine listings due to accessible content; and enable the easy transfer of this content to other media such as interactive TV or mobile phones as the methods of accessing content continue to evolve.
Bert Massie, Chairman of the DRC commented at the launch of PAS 78, "Businesses and the web industry have a responsibility to ensure the web is barrier free to disabled people. It also makes good business sense. An accessible website is easier for both disabled and non disabled people to use and is bound to attract more customers."
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded in 1994 to develop interoperable technologies, specifications, guidelines, software and
tools, to lead the internet to its full potential. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, and inventor of the world wide web observed, "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of
disability is an essential aspect."
W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative develops strategies, guidelines and resources to make the web accessible to people with disabilities. Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative, W3C told itwales.com, "The web is essential for success in today's business environment, and web accessibility is needed to ensure that websites can reach all audiences in that business environment. The investment of making a website accessible for people with disabilities also helps non-disabled users, such as people using mobile devices.
Brewer continues, "For SME's that are engaging the services of web developers, it is most important to raise the need for accessible design at the beginning of the design process, and to confirm that the designer is testing accessibility throughout the design process instead of waiting until the site is nearly done. Find out what kind of accessibility expertise the web developer has to begin with, and confirm this by checking references."
Alex Metcalf, Head of Client Services at Nomensa believes that an accessible website is now essential, and recommends a three step approach to accessibility, "First, check where you stand: check the accessibility skill sets in your development team, and check how accessible your site currently is (using a skilled consultancy's audit service).
"Second, make the changes. If your chosen consultancy did their job well, they'll give you actionable and prioritised recommendations for change which you can follow. Finally, maintain the accessibility. Do regular quality assurance checks on your website's content, especially if you add new sections, new functionality, or make frequent changes to content."
Liam Giles, Director of Cardiff based SpinDogs concurs with the W3C guidelines, and agrees that accessibility is vital, "There are added benefits to using up to date coding standards and abiding to the W3C guidelines. Many clients that we have provided websites for have seen a 30-40% increase in search engine traffic, a reduction in loading time for pages, and an overall increase in visitors due to improved browser compatibility alone."
Many small companies may be concerned that adhering to this legislation may bring with it prohibitive costs, but as Giles points out, "Creating an accessible website should not cost you any more than having your site built using out of date standards. All you need to do is make sure that you state that you wish your site to meet with current guidelines and your web developer should be able to take care of things. Confirming that your site is being created using XHTML / CSS shows that your web developers are embracing new technology and making clean websites - be wary of web designers that still rely on HTML tables for layout."
Gwilym Morris, Director of Swansea based The Pollen Shop also points out that cost need not be an issue, "If the investment an SME had to make was prohibitive, they would not be legally required to do anything to their website. The law and the disability movement recognise that a small bed & breakfast will have very different resources to a multi national company. Companies of all sizes should do whatever they can to make themselves open and accessible to disabled people because primarily it is good for business. It is simply bad business, for example, for a company to close itself of to the one in 5 people who are disabled by creating a website that people can't use."
Matt Goode, Marketing Director of web content management company, Immediacy believes that SMEs should understand that
accessibility is not an option, but rather a mandatory requirement, and that huge business benefits can be gained from having an accessible website if the concept is embraced as part of the overall
business strategy. "Producing accessible websites provides search engine friendly sites. Accessible sites tend to be compliant to common standards such as XHTML, follow a logical construction and
written to encourage clear communications. All of this helps boost search engine ranking. In addition, the more people you can attract and communicate with through your site, the wider you can cast
your communication net.
"The most effective way to manage accessibility is to turn it into a process that is not owned by an individual expert but shared across a group of editors. This is where a content management system can come in and automate the common check points prior to content being published. Checks carried out at this point ensure that your site is always compliant rather than in a constant state of compliant / non-compliant.
Goode concludes, "When developing a new site it's vital to ensure that markup is standard compliant to provide a common foundation from which accessibility is built. In particular, have an xHTML 1.1 strict website and a clear understanding of how to construct code that is friendly to a wide variety of user agents, such as screen and Braille readers. "
Shaw Trust is a national charity that provides training and work opportunities for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market due to disability, ill health or other social circumstances. Andrea Kennedy, Web Accessibility Officer for Shaw Trust, has advice for companies about to embark on the development of their website, "If you've purchased the services of developers, the British Standards have published an excellent document in the form of PAS 78. This is a publicly available specification for commissioning a website. It gives good guidelines to follow such as, always having your site tested by people with disabilities to ensure accessibility. I would also suggest that an accessibility policy is a must if problems are to be avoided. That policy can state your accessibility requirements and if the developer fails to meet them you have the document to take back to them and ensure they correct any problems.
"For those that wish to keep the development in house, I'd say that research is the key. Look at as much information as possible. Use sites such as GAWDS (The Guild of Accessible Web Designers), Nomensa, Webcredible and AIS. AIS provide a free Accessibility Toolbar that can help analyse your pages for things like, validation, document info, colour, images etc. Ask people for advice on forums such as Accessify, and seek the help of people with disabilities. There are many experts in accessibility but none more so than the users themselves."
Steve Holford, Director of Product Marketing at Fasthosts thinks that SMEs should consider the legislation as an opportunity for their business, "By making some basic improvements businesses can increase the usability of their site for all visitors. All website owners should have the resources at hand to make these small and inexpensive changes. SMEs won't be expected to completely overhaul their website in order to meet and exceed the requirements of the DDA, but a few minor changes will demonstrate commitment to making their site more accessible.
Holford continues, "Whether SMEs are updating an existing site, or developing a new one, our advice to businesses is the same. The key thing is to pay attention to the visibility of the font, the clarity of the navigation and to make concessions for producing clear, instructional alt tags. You'll find that these measures not only aid those with disabilities and conform to the new legislation, but you'll also be making a positive step towards increasing the usability of your site for all visitors - clear content and simple navigation are considered best practice in web design."
With accessibility in place, it is important to consider the usability of a
website. The two concepts often go hand in hand, as an accessible website is often a usable site. Accessiblity and usability
experts Webcredible have a range of resources available from their site including articles and white papers, and they recommend a three
step guide to planning a usable website:
Simplicity is the key to a usable and accessible website, and the power must be given to the user in the design phase. Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative, W3C thinks that usability is an important aspect of web design, "Just as with accessibility, usability is frequently overlooked in the design process, resulting in lost business opportunities. A user-centred design process can help ensure that people coming to a website can complete the tasks that they intend to on a Web site, whether the task is to locate simple information, or fill out a complex form to purchase something from the website.
"For example, many aspects of navigation are already covered in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines because they are essential for access for people with certain kinds of disabilities, for instance cognitive disabilities. But a usability analysis would look more closely at how the navigation supports the particular set of tasks that people coming to the website want to accomplish.
Brewer concludes, "Usability complements accessibility. A site that is designed to be accessible but with no thought to usability will likely be difficult for any user, regardless of disability. Conversely, on a site that is designed to be both accessible and usable, disabled users will be able to use - and therefore will benefit more from - accessibility features incorporated in the website."
There is no "one size fits all" solution, according to Matt Goode, Marketing Director of Immediacy, due to the activity of the website and business, "However, one thing remains in any business which is the end user. A good usability study will identify key user issues and most importantly with conduct scenario testing to enable site developers to maximize a sites usability.
"Introducing a site search is one of the primary actions a business can undertake to ensure high levels of usability. This can help people find information without getting lost through navigation. That said it is vital to have a well constructed and hierarchical navigation structure that is customer centric and not internally focused. Standard tools like 'breadcrumb trails' and 'recently visited' can also aid and assist users to navigate sites successfully.
Goode warns that there is more to usability than meets the eye, and that SMEs need to understand if they have appropriate in house skills to manage clean and usable content. "SMEs shouldn't underestimate the scientific approach needed to maintain accessibility and usability. Many of the complexities can be simplified by employing a content management system and automating processes for content editors and creators. This not only helps achieve and maintain compliance for accessibility but it can also improve navigation and the overall customer experience."
Alex Metcalf, Head of Client Services at Nomensa takes Goode's point about in house knowledge one stage further with a suggestion, "Commission an expert review to assess your site. This should give you some quick fixes, together with longer term recommendations and what steps to take next. Whatever approach is taken, make sure your business needs dictate the usability work required, rather than just doing usability work for its own sake."
Since 1999 UK businesses have had to "take reasonable steps to
change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services". This does not
mean that an SME has to devote the same time and resources to their website as a multi national, but it does mean that companies of all sizes need to consider the potential users of their services and
adapt those services as necessary. Whether your website is going to be simply updated or completely redesigned, planning is key.
Don't think of accessibility and usability issues simply in terms of disabled users - every web user has their own needs when using the internet, whether it's the browser technology they are using, or a physical impairment that they might have. By planning the site carefully and developing a user centric experience you will enhance the site's accessibility and usability, and enable your potential market use your website in the way that is appropriate to them.
Web accessibility need not be a complex and cumbersome issue, so don't try and reinvent the wheel. Think about your potential market, and the ability you are giving them to access your website using adaptive technologies for disabilities, or simply using PDAs or web enabled mobile phones.
Whether you develop your website in house, or outsource the job to an expert developer, you owe it to your business to offer every one of your customers an accessible and usable web experience.
Send a comment about this article to editor@itwales.com.
Useful Links:
Read more about web accessibility and usability with the articles from Webcredible published on itwales.com. "Beyond guidelines: Advanced accessibility techniques" and "How to improve your site search (...or 'looking for jamie oliver')".
ITWales is not responsible for the content of external websites, and does not endorse the products or services offered.
Disability Rights Commision - www.drc-gb.org
Disability Discrimination Act - www.direct.gov.uk/DisabledPeople
World Wide Web Consortium - Web Accessibility Initiative - www.w3.org/WAI
Shaw Trust - www.shaw-trust.org.uk
Nomensa - www.nomensa.com
Webcredible - www.webcredible.co.uk
SpinDogs - www.spindogs.co.uk
The Pollen Shop - www.thepollenshop.co.uk
Immediacy - www.immediacy.co.uk
Fasthosts - www.fasthosts.co.uk
Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) - www.gawds.org