Guidance on how to develop a website that is
user-friendly for people with disabilities has been issued by the
British Standards Institution.
The advice follows an investigation by government body the
Disability Rights Commission, which revealed that 81% of UK
websites are inaccessible to people with disabilities.
The PAS 78 guidance document, sponsored by the Disability Rights
Commission and the BSI, covers six areas:
- The accessible website process, from commissioning to building
a site
- Accessibility policies
- What web accessibility guidelines mean
- Involvement of disabled people
- Compliance checking
- Additional useful accessibility provisions.
For many disabled people, the key to a website being usable lies
in the design allowing the core HTML to be read by, for example, a
text-to-speech reader. Links that can be reached by tabbing rather
than using a mouse can help users with impaired motor skills.
Since 1999, website owners have had a legal duty under the
Disability Discrimination Act to ensure that services provided via
the web are accessible to the UK's 10 million disabled people.
Bert Massie, chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, said,
"Businesses and the web industry have a responsibility to ensure
the web is barrier-free to disabled people. It also makes good
business sense.
"An accessible website is easier for both disabled and
non-disabled people to use, and is bound to attract more
customers."