What Is Website Accessibility Compliance

Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 15:30

Since 1999 there has been a legal requirement to make your website accessible, ensuring it does not discriminate against disabled site visitors. Disabled persons have the right to make a claim against you if your website makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access information and services. If you have not made reasonable adjustments and cannot show that this failure is justified, then you may be liable under the Act, and may have to pay compensation and be ordered by a court to change your site.

By reasonable adjustments, they are referring to policies, procedures and website features which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use the service.

However as of 2008 there have been no cases brought against any websites so there is no exact definition of what an accessible website is!

You may have seen the letters A, AA or AAA on websites indicating that they have achieved all the priority one, two or three guidelines set out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Generally the best practice solution is for websites to aim to exceed the basic level of compliance that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend in their Website Accessibility Guideslines (WAG) version 1.0. You should aim for double AA compliance as a small business.

Although some web designers claim to develop to W3C guidelines, there are no nationally recognised accreditation schemes to support their claims. Also there is no definitive definition of a “fully compliant accessible” website in law, so no web designer can promise to deliver one!

Why Would I Implement it on My Website?

To make your website easier to use for all visitors;
Accessible sites work better in less popular browsers/platforms;
Risk of excluding 14% of the UK population registered disabled;
Accessible sites are more search engine friendly;
To ensure your website complies with legal requirements regarding accessibility;

Possible Requirements to Consider

Implement variable text sizing and colour schemes to aid the visually impaired;
Ensure your website is built with valid code – no errors;
Ask a “visually impaired” user to test drive your site if applicable to your target market;
If there are complaints about the accessibility of your website – ensure you take steps to resolve the issues;
Complete independent audit if accessibility is important to your website users;
Publish an accessibility statement on your website stating which standard the website is built to and describing the features you have implemented;