Businesses and Organisations spend over £20 billion each year on marketing and communicating with their customers. According to the RNIB there are over 2 million blind and partially sighted people in the UK alone, and a further one in seven people in the UK or about 8.5 million who suffer from some form of disability (Source: Disability Rights Commission) which might change their method and approach to accessing the web.

The business case

For business reasons alone, it makes perfect sense to enable as many people as possible to access your website. By doing so you are effectively opening up your business to a whole new market (The combined estimated spending power of disabled people is estimated at £40-50 billion, source: Employers Forum on Disability).

In addition, an accessible website will be appreciated and will engender a positive customer experience which as any marketier knows is invaluable for building up brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.

The initial steps to accessibility are not necessarily that arduous, time consuming or expensive. There are many tests that can be carried out on your website. There are simple tests you can carry out yourself or you can arrange for a full audit to be carried out by Bryteworks.

The legal case

The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 changed accessibility for websites from a should have to a must have. The Act, which has been implemented in stages, saw the crucial stage for web sites implemented on 1st October 1999. This stated that organisations would be violation of the law if in refusing to provide, or deliberately not providing, to the disabled person any service which he provides, or is prepared to provide, to members of the public; the following example is also included in the law: “An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its web site. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the Act.”

All staff from managing Directors to trainees are responsible for ensuring that the Act is complied with. Sole traders, firms, companies and partnerships are all liable, as are the self-employed, employees, volunteers, contractors and agents.

Dispelling the Myths

There are numerous myths regarding accesible websites and disabled access to the web. Firstly it is a common assumption that an accessible website is a dull website. At Bryteworks we consider it to be the opposite. Ensuring a website is accessible not only ensures that disabled users can more easily access the website, since accessiblity features are designed with a wide audience in mind, the overall usability of a website is improved.

A second myth is that it is expensive to convert a site to an accessible site or to provide information in alternative formats. Again this is rarely true. At Bryteworks we offer a range of options to our customers that provide a cost effective approach to enabling accessibility. With most of our work we like to promote a forward looking strategic approach to using the web effectively for your business. In this way the accessibility standards of your website can be increased over time according to what your budget and needs allow.

Quick fixes to full audit and implementation

There are a number of 'quick fixes' that can be applied to an existing website, that will bring a website up to a standard where it is at least partially accessible to certain disabled users. Adding explanations to all images (i.e. ALT tags), providing text sizing buttons, creating text alternatives to Macromedia Flash animations and providing the ability to tab easily through forms (not everyone can use a mouse).

More fundamental changes if necessary can be made over time, as new sections are built or as a seperate project in its own right according depending on your individual organisation's situation. Bryteworks can help define an overall strategy best suited to your precise needs and available budget.

Standards and compliance

There are a number of organisations who grant websites awards and recognition for achieving certain accessiblity standards. These standards are based on the Website Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines, published in 1999 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The WAI guidelines are the globally accepted standard for website accessibility.

The WAI guidelines consist of 14 basic statements, each of which is broken down into a number of more specific "checkpoints" which are designated as priority one, two or three. In conjunction with their guidelines, the WAI define three standards of accessibility:

A - The most basic standard. A site must comply with all of the priority one checkpoints to achieve this standard.
AA - A higher standard than A. Sites must comply with all of the priority one and two checkpoints to achieve this standard.
AAA - A high standard of accessibility. Sites must comply with all priority one, two and three checkpoints to achieve this standard.

Our services

Bryteworks can offer you guidance and help throughout the process of achieving any or all of the standards outlined above. From producing initial audits,implementing any recommendations through to managing the compliance testing by the appropriate bodies, we can assist at every step of the way.