Website Accessibility - Why You Need An Accessible Website That's Compliant With The New DDA Rules
Your website will be used by many different types of user including disabled users. Accessible websites are useful to a wider range of users because they cater for all kinds of disabilities as well as able bodied website users. In order to build more accessible websites, we consider the many disabilities that your users may have, these include:
- Blind users or those with impaired vision.
- Users with reduced motor skills that struggle with the use of a mouse.
- Users that are deaf or have impaired hearing
Website Accessiblity - How We Build Accessible Websites For Maximum Web Usability
We consider each different disability and for each user group we make sure that we provide the highest possible level of website accessibility. For example, storing text within images means that the information is inaccessible to blind users who may be using a speaking browser. We therefore build an alternative text description into each image on the website. This means that the website accessibility has been improved because a blind website user can still access the same textual information that is stated in the image!
To develop more accessible websites we also consider website users with reduced motor skills who may struggle with the use of the mouse. Each website we design can be navigated with the keyboard as well as the mouse which requires greater motor control in the hands. It is this careful consideration of website accessibilty that sets our designs apart from most website design companies in the Rotherham and Barnsley areas.
Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) & Website Accessibility Law
As of October 2004 the web accessibility laws have changes with the new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). To make you website DDA compliant you must ensure that the information you publish on your website is accessible to all users and does not prevent users with any disability from accessing information that you provide to your other website users.
How Do I Ensure I Have A DDA Compliant Website?
This simply means that any information that you publish on your website must be given in a suitable format for user groups with disabilities and should not hinder a user with a disability from accessing your information. For example DDA compliant websites must inform users if a link opens in a new browser window because this can be confusing for blind users. Javascript based 'fly out' menus are also in breach of the disability discrimination act as they are difficult for users with motor control disabilities to navigate. If audio or video are used on your website, a transcript should be provided so that deaf or blind users can access the same information as your able bodies website users. These are just a few of the website accessibility issues that must be considered when developing accessible websites for DDA compliance.
DDA Compliant Websites - So What If We You Don't Comply?
A disabled person can make a claim against you if your website makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult to access information and services. If you have not made reasonable adjustments and cannot show that this failure is justified, then you may be liable under the Disability Discrimination Act 2004, and may have to pay compensation and be ordered by a court to change your site. This is of course the worst case scenario and there are not yet any legal test cases. The truth of the matter is that you would more than likely get away with having a non DDA compliant website but we advise you to adopt a broadminded attitude towards website accessibilty, afterall the more users that can access your information the more likely it is that you will get more sales and enquiries!
