Andrew Betts, Director of Assanka, examines the issue of Web Accessibility and outlines our policy on accessible development practices.
Since 1995, and the Disability Discrimination Act, it has been a legal requirement for information service providers to make their services accessible to disabled users. Not only is it a legal requirement, it's also a jolly good idea for several reasons:
- One in seven people in the UK are disabled in some way, that's almost 15% of your potential audience.
- Making sites accessible also makes them extremely portable, and that means opening up access to mobile phones, PDAs, and other small-screen devices. And if you think that's a bit exotic, consider that more people in the UK have mobile phones than have computers. They just don't use them to access the internet - yet.
- Meeting accessibility standards shows that you have put a lot of thought into your site, and are prepared to invest time in it and the people accessing it. Badly designed sites just give the impression that you don't really care.
Blindness is the most obvious class of disability to affect using the web, since for the most part the web is a visual medium. However, there are other disabilities that affect peoples' access in different ways. Partial sight may be the same kind of disability but it merits a different approach. Colour blindness is another common problem - so frustrating when a site relies on colour to convey important information.
Sight-related problems such as these are probably the easiest to accomodate within an accessible design, and since it's really not difficult, it's staggering how may developers just don't even think about it.
Personally, I think learning difficulties are a more interesting problem - users with these disabilities, such as dyslexia, have difficulty assimilating information and organising it in their head. But although these users have problems severe enough to be classified as a disability, I would argue that anyone visiting a site for the first time is facing a learning curve, so the shallower we can make that curve, the better the experience people will have on the site.
Finally, motor disabilities, such as those that prevent a person from using a keyboard or mouse. Everyone finds it annoying to have to move the mouse a long distance across the screen to find a button or a link, so again the principle applies - good design for accessibility is just plain good design.
We are committed to producing accessible websites, and we have the expertise to make it happen. Of course the main factor is cost: when undertaking a project we provide clients with a choice of implementation options to suit their budget, but you've got to be realistic about it - on the whole we strike a balance and end up with a site that is accessible to all.
If you approach a web development project and plan it in a structured way, accessibility isn't really that hard to do, and the benefits can be impressive. From October 2004 there will finally be nowhere to hide, and British websites that discriminate against the disabled will potentially face legal action. It's now that the web development industry needs to be advising clients and getting prepared for the change in the law.
Whether you want to show you care, or just want to avoid getting sued, make your website accessible. It makes sense.