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Web Accessibility

Website accessibility is something that can be both technically challenging and extremely rewarding. Contrary to popular belief, having an accessible website does not mean having an ugly website, nor does it mean having a text-only website. When visiting many accessible websites you cannot tell that it is accessible without looking at its code.

Accessible Websites and W3C Compliance

Having already mentioned accessibility in the benefits of CSS websites, we thought we should explain in more detail why accessibility is so important and an essential part of website design and development.

So what is web accessibility?

Website accessibility can be defined as being the process by which a web page is created or modified in order to become more accessible to people with disabilities. These modifications follow the guidelines set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). To put it simply, an accessible web page is a page that disabled person will enjoy and be able to use as much as a non disabled person.

So why is it important?

The simple fact is that there are over ten million people in the UK who suffer from some form of disability. By creating a website that is accessible and usable to those people you are immediately widening your potential customer base, something that your competitors might not also offer through their own website(s). The other thing to consider is that it is becoming a legal requirement to comply to these guidelines and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). Several case have made it to court over the years and it is better to be prepared and cater for all your potential customers.

So what does it involve?

There are various guidelines, requirements and standards to meet to achieve certain levels of accessibility set by the W3C and WAI. These include paying particular attention to the following:

• Providing alternative text for all images.
• Assigning a null alt attribute to all decorative images which have no purpose other than aesthetical.
• Using labels for your form elements and information in your input boxes.
• Allowing the visitor to change the size of the text.
• Providing an alternative way of navigation than the mouse
• Ensuring that links make sense out of context by providing title text and destination information.
• Creating CSS design layouts are a massive factor in achieving accessible websites

Before we launch an accessible website, we submit it to numerous tests that will asses its accessibility, usability and validity. Upon finding errors or warnings in the generated reports, we will address each one of them individually and until we resolve them all.

Contact us today for a FREE Quotation....

Call us on 01908 612 500 or email us on creative@amasci.co.uk we will be more than happy to help you with any questions you might have.