Posts Tagged ‘W3C’
Why should I care about Usability & Accessibility?
Maybe you have heard people mentioning usability and accessibility together with websites. You might think that this is all a bit “Over The Top” and need not really bother you, but that is not quite right.
The UK DDA – Disability Discrimination Act – came into force in 1995. The DDA makes it unlawful to discriminate against people in respect of their disabilities in relation to employment, the provision of goods and services, education and transport. This means that any organisation which provides products and / or services – both profit AND non-profit organisations – must comply with the DDA.
For example, website, intranets, extranets have to be accessible too. Business websites providing information online must comply with the usability and accessibility guidelines.
Big Advantage
If your website can be accessed by people with disabilities, your website and ultimately your products and services information is open to a much wider audience.
DDA changes in October 2004 for websites?
Changes to the DDA are made almost on an annual basis. It is a wrong belief that from October 2004, websites must comply. Websites have had to comply since 1999! The DDA requires that reasonable adjustments are made to your services to ensure that a person with a disability can access that service.
What happens if my website does not comply?
A disabled person can make a claim against you or your organisation if they cannot access information or services via your website or your website makes it impossible or difficult to access information and services.
Therefore, if you have not made reasonable changes and cannot show that these changes are being made, then you may be liable under the DD Act, and may have to pay compensation and be ordered by a court to change your website.
Has anybody been sued yet?
In 2000, the Sydney Olympics Committee in Australia was requested to amend their website so that it can be accessed by people with disabilities. The changes were not made and this resulted in a decision against the website owners where they had to pay $20,000 Australian dollars.
Read more about the Sydney Olympics Committee…
Levels of compliance
There are three levels of compliance: A, AA and AAA. You can find out about the compliance levels by accessing the WAI pages (Web Accessibility Initiative) on the W3C website – www.w3.org/WAI.
RNIB – the Royal National Institute of the Blind – recommends that websites exceed the basic level of compliance that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend in their Website Accessibility Guidelines (WAG) version 1.0 and aim for double AA compliance.
How can I test it if my website complies with the guidelines?
There are different tools available online for testing your website’s accessibility. You also need to make sure that the website is developed using valid HTML / XHTML. This can be checked on the W3C website.
What if my website does not comply?
If your website does not comply with the recent guidelines or if your HTML is not valid, simply get in touch with us. We can provide a website analysis and undertake necessary steps to make your website legal.