Services / Website Accessibility
Website Accessibility
Website Accessibility is not the most interesting topic but it’s vitally important.
Many web design companies are building websites which are not compliant with the legal guidelines for web accessibility. There are many reasons for this including lack of awareness, the use of old practices/dated technology and often cost.
At Jigsaw, accessibility is not only a major priority but one of our passions. We believe there are not only moral and legal responsibilities to build accessible websites but sound business reasons too. Every website we design is produced in accordance with worldwide accessibility standards and government guidelines. Please read this blog post about web standards and why they are important.
What is ‘Web Accessibility’?
Accessibility is about much more than designing websites for disabled users though. It is about making your site available to the widest possible audience no matter what their web browser, operating system, connection speed or disability.
Legal issues
As a website owner you actually have a legal obligation to make your site accessible because of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Under UK law it’s illegal for a business to discriminate against people with disabilities.
Business reasons
Besides legal and moral obligations, accessibility also makes sense from a business perspective. Why turn users away just because they don’t have the latest browser, super fast broadband speeds or have poor vision/blindness?
Who does it affect?
There are many groups of people who may have trouble using inaccessible websites including:
- People using mobile phones and PDA’s to surf. These users are affluent and technically advanced yet still suffer web accessibility issues.
- People using old browsers or computers. Many organisations have standardised on older browser versions and don’t use the latest equipment.
- People using slow internet connections.
- The "Silver Surfer" is one of the biggest growing markets on the web and has a large amount of disposable income. This sector has accessibility issues such as reduced mobility, reduced hand-eye co-ordination and poor vision.
- Blind, partially sighted and the colour blind are the most obvious group of individuals affected by accessibility issues. This group makes up a very large percentage of web users.
- People with physical disabilities, such as those with impaired mobility.
Each individual group may only account for a small percentage of your potential users, however all these percentages start to add up to meaningful numbers. On even a small site you could be turning many people away every day.
The benefits of having an accessible website
The fact of the matter is, making your website accessible to as many people as possible is just sound business sense. Benefits include
- Ability to provide for affluent niche markets such as the "Silver Surfer" or people using PDA’s and mobile phones to access the web.
- Accessible websites are much more search engine friendly and lead to higher rankings.
- Increased turnover due to more people using your site.
- When a user has a positive experience on a website they don’t usually tell people. However if they have a negative experience they are likely to tell friends, relatives and colleagues about their experience. Excluding even a few people from your website can generate very negative PR.
Our Approach
Every website we design is produced in accordance with worldwide accessibility standards published by the W3C. They meet the Priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0)