Expert View: How accessible is your website?
By Phil Smears
Accessibility is about making your website usable to as many people as possible. Some users such as the disabled, the elderly and children can have difficulty using websites. Having a site that is not accessible not only prevents them from finding out about your business or buying from it, it can also be illegal.
Accessibility standards give instructions on how to build websites that allow all kinds of users, with varying requirements, to use them.
Here are seven reasons why you should make your website accessible:
1. To Avoid Litigation and Bad Publicity
The Disability Discrimination Act requires you to make reasonable adjustments to ensure the content of your site is accessible to people with disabilities. If this isn't the case, they could make a claim against you. An accessible website is also part of corporate responsibility and ethical business practices.
2. To Increase Market Share
The following statistics give an idea of the proportion of your market you may be alienating if you don't ensure your site is accessible:
• 14% of the population are registered as disabled people in the UK
• 9% of the UK have some form of colour blindness
• 4% of the population have a sight problem
• 21% of the UK population are aged 60 or over
The so called "Silver Surfers" have access to significant disposable income and much greater incidences of reduced mobility, reduced hand-eye co-ordination and poor vision.
3. To Boost Search Engine Rankings:
Google is the largest "blind user" on the web so content which is accessible to blind users will be accessible to Google. It likes ‘plain Jane’ HTML text not snazzy Flash video or JavaScript. Google themselves recommend web masters test their site with a text only browser like Lynx. Funnily enough, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommend the same.
4. To Decrease Maintenance costs:
Poorly structured, inaccessible web sites can be a nightmare for developers to work with and can result in long turn around times for relatively simple changes - the larger the site the bigger the problem.
5. To Ensure Interoperability:
PDAs and mobile phones are now regularly used to access the Internet. In addition to this you can add in-car browsers, web TV, kiosques, and a variety of other emerging appliances to the mix. It simply doesn't make sense to alienate yourself from a market which is increasing in size, especially one which is associated with high income earners.
6. To Improve Usability:
Often what prevents access to disabled users sets challenges for the rest of us. Research shows that sites optimised for accessibility are easier to use for everyone. Poorly structured inconsistent interfaces where users are an after thought decrease the effectiveness of your site. Think of the information highway as just that and then think of your site as a billboard which people are flashing past. You have to make things very simple and obvious. Users will give up if enough annoyances have accumulated.
7. To Decrease Download time:
A badly structured, poorly coded site adds to your download time. You can't afford long download times in a time poor society, even in this age of broadband.
And finally, possibly the best reason of all for making a site accessible is because it's the right thing to do.
If you are sourcing suppliers for web design or web development find out their web standards and accessibility credentials. For more information about how to commission an accessible website request a document called PAS 78 from the disability rights commission.
To find out how accessible your site is (or isn’t!) go to www.accessifyforum.com and post the URL under ‘Site Critiques’. You will get some very good very constructive feedback. If you think your site is accessible and also looks good then submit it to www.accessites.com for an award.
Should you have any further queries about accessibility please fell free to contact us at sdesign1 or call 0151 223 0001.
