Web Accessibility

Concern has been expressed that the Internet is becoming more and more inaccessible to many sections of the disabled community. This is in part due to failures on the part of web site designers to correctly follow HTML guidelines and an increased wish to use proprietary technologies such as Flash and Java without providing accessible alternative versions. It is also caused by bad coding! While it is easy to produce a good looking web site in Front Page or Dreamweaver, HTML knowledge and web developments skills are necessary to produce an accessible site.

Accessibility doesn't just relate to disability but to how people view web pages in general. If for example you use the <MARQUE> tags to produce scrolling text on a web page only people using the Internet Explorer web browser will see it! People using Netscape or Opera might miss an importance announcement because of this.

Accessibility Law - Disabilities Discrimination Act (DDA)

Since October 1999 providers of goods and services must make "reasonable adjustments" for disabled people such as "providing an auxiliary aid or service if it would enable (or make it easier for) disabled people to make use of its services" (DDA Code of Practice)

While the DDA may appear to stop short of directly making web accessibility a legal requirement, it maybe interpreted to be relevant to web sites (particularly where a service is offered through a web site). The DDA Code of Practice also highlights accessible web sites as a way of providing services to disabled service users. Although the current legislation is vague in it's definition of "services" there are strong indications that web accessibility will be included.

For further details visit the Disability Rights Commission web site.

Making Your Web Site Accessible

Making an accessible web site doesn't have to mean making a plain text only site. WebTrust can make web pages that are both accessible and visually appealing by following good accessibility programming practices and using the available accessibility tools and guidelines.

How we can Help

WebTrust can audit your existing web site; highlighting/sorting any accessibility issues.

If you don't yet have a web site we can develop an accessible site for you.

Don't wait for web site accessibility to become law, make it accessible to all, now!