The Importance of Accessibility in Web Design

Designing a website is a fine art, which is why many people pay a professional to build it for them. There are so many factors that need to be taken into consideration: page layout and aesthetics are just the obvious ones. So what about the less obvious issue of accessibility? This article explores its importance in web design today.

What is Accessibility?

Accessibility refers to building a website so that it is usable by as broad a number of persons as possible. It is often (but not always) thought of in terms of people with disabilities, which may include visual, hearing, mobility and learning disabilities.

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is an organisation which develops guidelines that are regarded as the standard for Web accessibility. Any good designer should aim to work in accordance to these standards wherever possible.

What Technologies are Available?

There are many different technologies that allow people with various disabilities to access websites. For instance, a blind person may use a text-based browser such as Lynx in conjunction with a screen reader which literally ‘reads out’ the text on a page. Someone with mobility issues may struggle to use a mouse but it could be possible for them to navigate a website using a keyboard alone.

Many accessibility features could actually be of benefit to all users. For instance a person with cognitive impairment may struggle to read long passages of text. However, breaking text into bite-sized chunks with plenty of headings could make a page more readable for everyone.

Accessibility features are typically quite simple to implement and where possible, should be a part of any quality design. I will not delve into the intricacies of how such features are implemented, but it is far easier when they incorporated into the planning process rather than trying to fit them retrospectively.

Why does it Matter?

Why should someone wishing to commission a website care about accessibility? Put simply, it should be viewed as a legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). What this means in real terms is that if a website is not accessible and it could have been made so without changing the nature of the service, that person or business is leaving themselves open to being taken to court.

The DDA does not explicitly reference websites or the internet. However, one only has to examine the case of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games to see how an organisation could fall foul. An Australian man won a court case against the Games’ organising committee because the official website did not sufficiently meet the needs of blind users. After a drawn out battle, the court’s ruling was that the code was to be altered to allow better access for disabled users. Although this case was brought under the Commonwealth DDA, it is very similar to the UK DDA. Therefore it is easy to see how a similar case could occur in this country.

Clearly this was an expensive mistake, both in terms of development time and financial cost. However, they were lucky that they were not also forced to pay compensation. Most damaging though, the publicity had a negative impact on their reputation.

If a company hires a web designer, the onus of responsibility is a grey area. It largely depends upon the circumstances, but either or both parties could be held accountable. Therefore it is in the best interests of everyone to ensure compliance wherever possible.

Self Builds

There are a myriad of tools and software available to allow non-technical people to build websites. The better ones will automatically include some accessibility features. However what about features that a piece of software is not capable of emulating? Most people will not be aware of the existence of simple issues such as avoiding long passages of text.

To Conclude

Clearly, accessibility is a delicate topic. In our increasingly litigious society, paying attention to equality is more important than ever. Although the number of legal proceedings brought against website owners has been low to date, it may be better to be safe than sorry. Any good web designer should be happy to discuss with you how they intend to overcome accessibility issues. If they cannot give you a straight answer, consider finding someone else to build your website!