Making your website Accessible

The core idea behind designing a Website is to make it accessible to people, to everyone. When we say everyone, it means people with or without disability. According to W3C, the governing body of World Wide Web, there is more than 20% people suffering from some kind of disability. It is for these people that your website needs to be accessible. According to the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act, it is now mandatory for websites to have a design and content that is accessible for people with disability (visual, cognitive, physical or hearing).

In simple business language, higher accessibility of your website will bring in higher returns, extend your market reach, reduce maintenance cost as well as server bandwidth and at the same time you can be on the right side of the law.

To know more about how to make your website accessible, you can refer to PAS 78. PAS 78 is a guidebook that highlights good practice and advises on how you can make your website accessible to everyone. The PAS 78 is a derivation of consultation with various advocacy groups like RNIB, W3C, Ability Net and DRC. PAS78 was actually developed by the British Standards Institution. The guidebook has detailed information on how you can as a website owner; comply with The Disability Discrimination Act. PAS 78 comes with a step by step understanding of how you can create a website that will accommodate the requirements of people with disability and make your website accessible to them.

The other law that affects web design is the special educational needs and disability act 2001. This law is applicable to all websites imparting education and to make such websites accessible to people with disability. The laws have been passed in both the US and UK and the future will see incorporation of browsers that will assist in screen reading, text only and also encourage brail reading.