What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility is about allowing disabled and non-disabled people to use your website regardless of the technology (software and hardware) or adaptive strategy they are using. This is particularly important for people with disabilities who rely heavily on assistive technologies to the Internet.

It also includes older people whose abilities change with age and web accessibility therefore embraces all disabilities that affect the use of the web and these include visual, neurological, auditory, cognitive and speech impairments.

Below is a list of some disabilities:

1. Visual impairments (blindness, low vision, colour blindness);
2. Physical disabilities (motor disabilities);
3. Cognitive and neurological disabilities (dyslexia and dyscalculia, attention deficit disorder, intellectual disabilities, seizure disorders, mental health disabilities, memory impairments);
4. Aging-related conditions;
5. Multiple disabilities (for example someone who is deaf and blind);
6. Hearing disabilities (deafness and hard of hearing).

Different disabilities affect the way disabled users use the web and the types of assistive technologies and adaptive strategies they use. Assistive technologies (also called adaptive software or hardware) and adaptive strategies help users with disabilities carry out tasks on the web that they would otherwise not be able to. These include screen readers, screen magnifiers, text browsers, alternative keyboards, voice browsers, Braille and refreshable Braille, scanning software, speech recognition, tabbing through structural elements (for example links, headers and list items), etc.

Web accessibility, therefore, is about designing and adapting web pages in such a way that disabled people can use the web using these technologies and adaptive strategies. For example, a blind person will use a screen reader that will read aloud what is displayed on the screen. Since most screen readers can only read text and do so from left to right, it is important that web pages are designed in such a way that they can be read in a linear fashion and that all graphical elements are supported with a text alternative (i.e. use of the "Alt" element in the img tag).

Key Benefits of Web Accessibility

The Internet is becoming increasingly more important in our lives. Web accessibility is vital to disabled people as it provides them with equal access and equal opportunity to the web. Therefore it significantly improves their lives as "the Web offers the possibility of unprecedented access to information and interaction for many people with disabilities". An accessible web allows people with disabilities to become more active members of our society (W3C 2005).

Secondly, it is a legal requirements for any company that offers goods and services on the Internet to ensure that their site is accessible (Disability Rights Commission 2004). Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) states that "From 1st October 1999 a service provider must take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services".

According to the Royal Institute for the Blinds (RNIB) an accessible website also brings many commercial benefits. These include:

1. Increased market share (there are 8.5 million disabled people in the UK, they represent 14% of the population and have a spending power of around £50 billion (ONS 2006);
2. Increased usability (accessible websites provide clear navigation and content which encourage web users to stay longer and return to the site);
3. Reduced maintenance costs (cleaner code and use of CSS make web sites easier and quicker to maintain);
4. Greater compatibility and future proofing (by designing according to web standards for accessibility, web sites remain readable as browsers and web standards evolve).

This article was created by Nathalie Vu-Van-Toan, a UK Accessibility Expert and Web Designer. If you'd like to discover more about professional design services which comply with current legislation, please contact Nathalie on 02476 302 609, or info@raspberryfrog.co.uk