Accessibility Consultation
Bunbury IS offers audits of Web sites to improve accessibility by disabled users and usability for all.
The accessibility of Web sites and internal Intranets is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act [1995] in the United Kingdom, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the United States. Both public and private sector sites must be usable to those with disabilities including: blindness, low vision, dyslexia, deafness, motor impairments, cognitive and learning difficulties. The whole Web site should be accessible, or equivalent material must be provided.
The key recommendations for accessibility are the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG1]. " There are 14 guidelines, focussing on different accessibility issues:
- Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
- Don't rely on colour alone.
- Use mark-up and style sheets and do so properly.
- Clarify natural language usage.
- Create tables that transform gracefully.
- Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
- Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
- Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
- Design for device-independence.
- Use interim solutions.
- Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
- Provide context and orientation information.
- Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
- Ensure that documents are clear and simple. "
Specific checkpoints are divided into Priorities 1, 2 and 3. Level A compliance is achieved when Priority 1 checkpoints are met, Level A-A follows when Priorities 1 and 2 are met, while Level AAA is achieved when all checkpoints are met. However, simply ticking boxes is not enough to make a Web site usable — find out how we can help you with usability testing.
Apart from the legal requirements, there are a number of commercial benefits to making a Web site accessible:
- increase business from impaired customers:
Ninety percent of visually impaired people in Britain are over sixty years of age (1 in 12 of the population)...
[AFB]. Also, a large number of the ageing population suffer from arthritis which affects their use of the mouse, so targeting the growing grey population is good for business. - improve usability for all visitors: test for more demanding disable visitors to achieve better results for all.
- improve your search engine listings: better use of text, language and meta-data can improve your listing, and prepare you for advanced search engines.
- attractive, quality design: an accessible Web site does not have to be a plain text-only site.
- ease maintenance, by encouraging the designer to separate content from style — style sheets can be readily interchanged.
- demonstrate social responsibility: an increasingly significant differentiator for shareholders and others.
Bunbury IS offers audits tailored to your site and performed by expert human testers. The result is a detailed report suitable for technical and non-technical readers. The report specifies which checkpoints from the Guidelines have been met and which need to be achieved. The report contains a prioritised list of actions that are required for the different levels of compliance. When issues have been resolved Bunbury IS can then re-audit the site and offer additional help.
Contact us today for a no-obligation quote.
Usability
