Much has been made of the issue of accessibility and the so-called ’laws’ governing it lately. In this article, we attempt to dispel a few myths surrounding the topic, and highlight exactly what you can reasonably expect to achieve with your website.
Firstly, a definition: an accessible website is one that accommodates the full range of users and devices on the internet. This means that anyone who uses the internet, using any device capable of connecting to and viewing websites, should be able to retrieve information from your site with the same ease as anyone else using it. An accessible website should operate in much the same fashion for someone at home using Microsoft Internet Explorer as it should for a blind user using a mobile screen reader on their PDA.
Why should we be designing for accessibility at all?
- A precedent has been set in the courts:-
Australian Courts vs Sydney 2000 Olympic Committee. The case was brought by a blind user who could not navigate and attain the information he required “because of the manner in which that information was made available…” - To appeal to your entire market:-
There are approximately 10 million disabled people living in the UK, totalling some 18% of the population. One in twelve men and one in two hundred women have some kind of colour blindness – 9% of the UK population. Two million UK residents have a sight problem (4% of the population), and there are 12 million people aged 60 or over – 21% of the population. These statistics, precluding any potential for overlap, total 48% of the UK population: a large portion of any market.
The estimated annual purchasing power of disabled users in the UK alone is a startling £80 billion. Research has shown that they are more likely to spend on the internet as it is an environment where they feel welcome.
How easy is accessibility to accomplish? The answer varies. Total accessibility, some would argue, is impossible due to the diversity of available mediums and their ever-increasing market. To design with accessibility in mind is to accept the following as truths:
- There is no standardised information consumer,
- There is no standardised device for browsing information.
With these in mind, it is relatively easy to design for accessibility. It is simply a case of analysing your user’s needs, putting them first and designing a well-structured sitemap, and checking early and often that your site makes sense across a broad spectrum of media.
Specifically, here are a few points to consider:
- Should you have a large and small text version of your website?
- Should you have more than one colour scheme for users who need high contrast between background and text colour?
- Should you be offering a low bandwidth version of your site?
Accessibility is currently a hot-topic in the internet world, and is currently the subject of a growing number of best practise guidelines from a variety of sources. However, as demonstrated above, it is an important subject and is likely to be made law sooner rather than later. The time to act is now.
