Website Accessibility

Web standards and accessibility

Accessibility refers to ensuring that web content is accessible - in other words that it can be navigated and read by everyone, regardless of location, experience, or the type of computer technology used. Accessibility is most commonly discussed in relation to people with disabilities, because this group are most likely to be disadvantaged if the principles of accessible web design are not implemented.

Ensuring that a website is accessible means ensuring that it conforms to one or more accessibility standards, the most common of which are those defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) under their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). There are three levels, or priorities, of conformance to the standards: 1 (or 'A') is the lowest and 3 (or 'AAA') is the highest.

Apart from helping those with disabilities, accessibility often increases usability for all other users too. Increasingly, technology designed to cater for blind or deaf users also improves the user experience for all site users. The website will also be more robust and better thought-out if care has been taken to ensure that it is accessible - again improving the overall user experience.

Benefits of accessibility

Increased audience
Increased brand value
Easier to maintain
Reduced risk of litigation
Reduced development costs

As well as meeting an organisation's legal and social responsibility to achieve an accessible site, experience has shown us several other business benefits can be derived from creating a site that can be accessed by all. It will also improve Search Engine rankings, allow all users to find what they want as quickly as possible, increase the value of the content, expand the market and reduce the need for ongoing site maintenance. The bottom line is that an accessible site will not only reduce costs, it will also increase revenues.

Ultimately, by thinking about developing an accessible site up front, we are able to provide a multitude of options to deliver a truly creative offering to users. In a competitive market we believe creativity is both required and expected in order to make a site accessible without losing any of its appeal.

Contact us to discuss how your organisation could benefit.