Public sector and corporate websites could be turning away almost eight million people (17 per cent of adults)* if they fail to meet the latest accessibility guidelines, reveal new figures from national employment charity Shaw Trust.
The research, conducted for Shaw Trust by YouGov, shows almost one sixth of the population have health conditions, including blindness or visual impairment, colour blindness, hearing impairment, dyslexia or mobility impairment, which make it difficult for them to access and transact on many websites,. With this in mind, public sector and corporate IT, HR and communications managers or directors are today urged to seize the opportunity to review their websites against current website accessibility standards.
Indeed, with the Central Office of Information’s deadline for Delivering Accessible Websites** having come into force for all central government owned websites in December 2009, the clock is ticking.
And a high level of website accessibility is of even more importance given the growing numbers of users of assistive technology such as voice activation software, which enables users to navigate websites using their voice instead of a keyboard or mouse, as well as the increasing amount of rich video content available on some sites.
For those IT or communications managers wanting to learn about the best ways to ensure their website meets accessibility guidelines, Shaw Trust, which has provided website accessibility services to more than 140 corporate and public sector clients, has put together the following tips and considerations:
1. Those responsible for managing an organisation’s website need to ensure they keep themselves up to date with regular training to make sure their site continues to be accessible to people with disabilities, irrespective of any changes the website has undergone since the original build. Web manager or communications managers may find that, even if a website met accessibility guidelines when it was first developed, those guidelines may now have changed and the site may now not be of the required accessibility standard.
2. Website managers, or anyone responsible for updating websites, should check that it is possible to use the tab key to go through their website. Sites that are not possible to tab through may present a barrier to those people with mobility impairment or users who do not use a mouse. In addition, sometimes the tabs are invisible, which makes it impossible for some users to know ‘where they are’ on the page.
3. For blind or visually impaired users, website managers should ensure their website’s headings are in the correct order. Headings are there to signpost users to different parts of a webpage and allow them to navigate through the page, much as headlines in a newspaper allow readers to identify quickly the articles which interest them most. Ideally, headings should be presented in a hierarchical and logical order to enable screenreader users to navigate quickly and efficiently through content.
4. Website managers should ensure that edit fields in all the forms on their organisation’s website are labelled clearly. This helps users to know which text needs to be inputted where. For example, an edit field acting as a search field needs to be labelled ‘search’ to enable web users – particularly screen reader users – to add text accurately where required.
5. Text transcripts should be available for any video or audio files that are on the website to allow deaf users to read and understand all available content. Captioning is also useful for a variety of web users.
6. Finally, website managers should give consideration to the colours used on their web site as some colour combinations can have an adverse impact on colour blind, visually impaired or low vision users. For example, there should be a strong colour contrast between the text on the page and the background – pink text on a red background, for example, is almost unreadable.
Shaw Trust’s Website Accessibility Auditing service tests websites technical compliance, coupled with a full user testing programme undertaken by a team of testers with a range of disabilities including: blindness; visual impairment; colour blindness, deafness; dyslexia, mobility impairment, learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorders.
Most testers are users of assistive technology including voice activated, magnification, screen readers, switch access and keyboard only and they advise on the compatibility of websites with these technologies such as screen reader software which converts text to speech for people with visual impairments. Clients such as Sky, The Guardian, Coca-Cola, the Red Cross and many government departments and local authorities have been able to experience how assistive technologies are used first hand during visits with the testing team while their sites are undergoing testing.
Cam Nicholl from Shaw Trust says: “People with certain disabilities can find it difficult or even impossible to access, navigate or read the content of a web page if the information isn’t presented correctly.
“It’s really important to remember that it is a legal requirement for public facing websites, intranet and extranets to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and that it also meets the Disability Equality Duty criteria as laid out in the COI’s report ‘Building Inclusive Websites’.
“If you are unsure whether your website complies with the relevant guidelines, Shaw Trust offers a comprehensive testing service where you will be left in no doubt about the standard of accessibility and whether or not your site is compliant.”