Accessibility

What is it and why is it important?

In 1995 the UK issued the Disability Discrimination Act, followed in 2001 by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act. The EU has similar guidelines in place, and so does the US. In a nutshell, these mean that all commercial websites should comply with a series of guidelines that make them friendly towards people with dissabilities. An example of this would be making a page friendly towards screen readers, or avoiding using a single type of media to convey information, whether it is image or sound only.

What are the benifts of a compliant site?

• Sites are streamlined, smaller and faster loading
• Userbase is expanded, as people can access the site now even though they were were unable to do it before
• Site can be better seen by search engine robots, leading to a better classification and positioning.
• Correctly coded sites are easier and quicker to update, modify and redesign
• Sites can avoid possible fines due to lack of compliancy

The reasons for these requirements are easier to understand if we keep in mind that screen readers read absolutely everything on the screen. So if a site has made use of certain features for page layout that were not designed to be used that way, or that add lots of unnecessary code, screen readers gets confused, and confuse the end user. The same happens if the colours and sizes of text are set using innapropriate header indications or similar. A website that confuses screen readers, or where they have to go through endless rows of images to find a proper link, will very soon tire the user. Such a website is virtually unusable for them, and when it involves a commercial site, is effectively a lost sale.

This problem isn't helped by the notion quite a few people have that these requirements aren't that important, or alternatively, interpreted that by slapping name tags in their images they are covered. The truth of the matter is that sites programmed using old code specifications are more than likely going to fail in these accessibility guidelines.

How difficult is it to comply?

The good news is that having a compliant website isn't as difficult as it might appear. Guidelines basically require that all "style" information (colours, background images, positioning, page layout, etc.) is kept separated from the pages themselves, loaded as required, and that anything that is conveyed through images also has an alternate display. This does require careful and up-to-date programming, using the latest technologies available.

Also, websites that comply with these guidelines don't have to be boring. A good designer will be able to balance form and function, and program a website that is both functional, accessible and visually appealing.

How can Cheshire Woods help?

We offer an accessibility and compliancy evaluation service, and if required, we can also re-code existing websites to comply with the guidelines. We have created a series of fully-accessible websites, please visit the portfolio for examples.