Website accessibility

Picture of a web browser's address bar The world wide web offers exciting possibilities for accessing large quantities of information. However, as there is no central governing authority free reign is given to individual creativity. As a result disabled and elderly people must frequently overcome additional obstacles before they can enjoy the full range of information on offer. Website accessibility is about ensuring websites are accessible and usable by everybody, regardless of disability or browsing technology.

Why be accessible?

There are several reason why websites should be made accessible for everybody:

Legal requirements

It is a requirement of UK law (Disability Discrimination Act 1995) that individuals should not encounter unjustifiable discrimination by goods, facilities and service providers on account of a disability. Under this legislation a website is considered a service, therefore, discrimination may take the form of a disabled or elderly person being denied access to a website or the provision of a poorer service by an inaccessible website.

Economic benefits

There are economic benefits to having an accessible website:

Photograph of a non-traditional browsing device

Access for all

Having an accessible website will mean that access to information will be greatly enhanced for all individuals. When a website is designed or modified to allow access for people with disabilities it is not only making the website more accessible, it is also increasing the usability for non-disabled users. Accessible design principles, when applied correctly, benefit everyone.

Assistive technology

The majority of disabled website users make use of assistive technology. By ensuring that accessibility standards are implemented, it is more likely that a website will be more compatible with assistive technology.

Statistics

  • There are 308 million internet users in Europe, 209 million in the USA and 1076 million users worldwide
  • The largest demographic group online is currently the 35-44 age group which accounted for 23.5% of internet visits in the four weeks up to 12 May 2007. The over 55s accounted for 22% of visits
  • 3.4 million people have disabilities preventing them from using the standard keyboard, screen and mouse set-up with ease
  • In 2006, 57% of households in Great Britain had an Internet connection: a total of 13.9 million households
  • Between January and April 2006, 15% of those aged 65 and over had used the internet
  • 36% of Britain's disabled people have access to the internet
  • If a disabled person finds a business inaccessible, 67% of their friends and family would consider not using that business themselves
  • In 2006, 2% of UK households did not have Internet access due to physical disability
  • In 2007 between 80 and 96% of sites reviewed did not meet a minimum accessibility threshold
  • In 2007, 15.23 million UK households had Internet access
  • Of all UK households, 51% had broadband Internet access in 2007, an increase from 40% in 2006.
  • In 2007, 53% of adults purchased goods or services over the Internet

Problems encountered by disabled and elderly people

Blind and Partially Sighted

The way a website is designed will determine how accessible it is to people with disabilities. In particular blind people use browsers with speech or Braille output which are text-based systems; therefore the site should be navigable independent of the graphics content. For people with low vision, the ability to vary the text size on their browser is essential. A further problem encountered by blind and partially sighted people is that many websites use graphics such that they are not meaningful when accessed by a text-based browser.

Hearing impaired

People with hearing impairments require visual representation of auditory information that a website provides. With the increading use of multimedia on websites (e.g. podcasts, video streaming) it is important to ensure that information can be understood by those who have hearing impairments.

It is also important to appreciate that those using British Sign Language (BSL) use a different sentence structure and vocabulary compared to typical spoken English. Consideration should be given to using simple language and the inclusion of a glossary of terms.

A photograph of a girl with Downs Syndrome using a computer

Physically impaired

People with a physical disability may have difficulty controlling their hands and arms therefore, holding and using a mouse effectively becomes a problem. Others find prolonged use of their arms or hands tiring.

Users with physical impairments are more likely to struggle with standard computer equipment and find it easier to use assistive technology.

Cognitively impaired

People with cognitive or learning impairments may have problems reading text or become confused by complex page layouts, tables or navigation structures. Moving and blinking text may also be distracting and impede understanding.

ElderlyA photograph of an elderly man using a computer

While older people often experience changes in vision, hearing, dexterity, and memory as they age, they might not consider themselves to have disabilities. Yet the accessibility provisions that make webpages accessible also benefit older people with diminishing abilities. For example, many people with age-related visual impairments may benefit from being able to alter text size. Elderly people may also experience mobility difficulties when using the mouse.

Other problems encountered with web accessibility

Low bandwidth and older technologies
Many website designers work on the philosophy that the user's browser is no more than a year old. In the case of disabled and elderly users, it is likely to be considerably older than that, so there is also a problem of legacy systems.

Some aspects of Web accessibility benefit people with low bandwidth connections. Low bandwidth can be due to:

Some older technologies load pages very slowly and do not support features used on newer sites.


Checklist for Web Accessibility


Recommendations

There are a number of methods that web site developers and designers can use to ensure web sites are accessible:

Follow guidelines

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a web industry co-operative, recognised the need for universal accessibility and since 1999 its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to help reduce potential difficulties. The recommendations comprise a set of checkpoints or design practices. These checkpoints are ranked into three categories, defined by the WAI as Priorities 1, 2 or 3 according to its view of their relative decreasing importance in enabling web access by disabled people.

A summary of the main WAI recommendations:

Other accessibility techniques

Automated testing tools

Below are a selection of automated tools that web designers can use to test the accessibility of a website:



Legislation


Further information


Acknowledgements

The information contained in this section was taken from the following sources:


Picture acknowledgements