Website tips Accessibility for websites

Accessibilty for websites is all about making sure that your website is available to as many people as possible. This is good for people with impairments. And it's good for you as well because you won't be excluding some potential customers.

It's worth bearing in mind that two million people in the UK cannot read standard print (source: RNIB).

The legal situation in the UK (The Disability Discrimination Act)

The original 1995 Act was changed on 1 October 2004, removing exemptions for small businesses. The Act includes provisions that compel businesses to make "reasonable adjustments" to their websites so that disabled people can use them.

In our view websites should be accessible to as many people as possible. Most, unfortunately, are not.

An accessible website can be used by anyone, regardless of ability or disability. An accessible and usable website makes the tasks visitors perform into a more efficient and pleasurable experience, whether finding information or shopping. That's got to be good for business.

What affects a websites accessibility?

• Colour - good contrast should be used and the website should still be usable by people with colour-blindness.
• Font sizes - are they big enough to read? Ideally they will be resizable so that users can increase the font size if required.
• Language - use the clearest, simplest language possible to convey your content.
• Layout and structure - some people cannot benefit from clues given by the visual layout of your web pages. Regular HTML should be used for headings, subheadings, paragraphs, links etc. so that speech and braille readers can make structural sense of the content.
• Document type and encoding - these should be defined so that access technology such speech and braille readers can interpret the content correctly.
• Images - if a website relies on images for navigation, or contains text rendered in images, it is unlikely to be very accessible.
• Dynamic menus - dynamic menus, also known as drop-down or DHTML menus, cause a number of accessibility issues. They are difficult to make keyboard accessible for people who do not use a mouse and can be awkward to use for people with screen magnification. Best avoided.
• Forms - forms should have a logical flow and labels for input fields (text, radio buttons, checkboxes etc.) should be positioned adjacent to the inputs so that screen readers can associate the right label with the input.

From the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind)

There are around two million people in the UK with sight problems and RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind) is the leading charity offering practical support and information to anyone with a sight problem. Our pioneering work helps - not just with braille, Talking Books and computer training but with imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges. More information on accessibility is available at the RNIB website.