WAI and Website Accessibility

Many ‘professional’ web designers continue to produce sites which fail access or structural standards- excluding a section of the site's potential audience and leaving the website owners open to legal disputes.

Access for All

Most internet users browse web content through a visual browser, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome. Commonly, people assume that this is the only way that the web can be presented.

In reality, page content may also be accessed by other tools- notably ‘audio’ page readers used by the blind and partially-sighted.

Some web designers, commonly those with graphics backgrounds, freely use inappropriate code structures or hide information in images. Many countries have legislation aimed at preventing this exclusion- including the UK, which makes it illegal to discriminate against disabled people via the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

Access Standards and the WAI

As websites begin to feature more complex multimedia components, we should ensure information is available to all visitors- in an equivalent form if needs be.

Broadly, we should consider the following potential impairments when building a website:

• Auditory
• Visual
• Cognitive
• Motor

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides guidelines and tools to allow designers to develop their sites inclusively. We aim to build all sites to WAI-AA standard (where the minimum recommended is WAI-A), and meet WAI-AAA (the highest standard) where technically feasible.

Assessment of accessibility is usually performed by a combination of software tools and human evaluation.

Additional Benefits of Inclusive Web Design

Properly structuring web code and providing alternative content for media (e.g. images, music, video) often gives websites a better profile in the search listings, and can help achieve higher placements for your key terms.

A lovely benefit to reward those who are considerate!