Website Accessibilty Audit

What are the advantages of having an access audit carried out on my Website?

The audit will highlight access problems with your Website and produce a list of recommended changes. These changes if taken 'on-board' will produce many advantages:

• Your Website will work on more Internet connected devices (i.e WebTv, different PC hardware, mobile devices) and Web browsers.
  
  
• Your will have more customers for your service or information.
  
  
• Your Website will comply with the Disability Discrimination Act and the new Special Educational Needs and Disability Rights Act.
  
  
• Accessible Website tend to have lower support costs (certainly less people will e-mail you to tell you about the bits that don't work for them).
  
  
• Accessible Websites also tend to be easier to use - leading to a more positive user experience.
  
  
• Freedom from damages claims from users unable to use your site for a reason related to their impairment.
  
  
• Accessible Websites are easier to use for all visitors to your site - not just disabled people.

I recently contributed to the Scottish Enterprise 'Smart Guide' on Web Accessibility - the guide outlined some of the advantages for businesses:

• If you're in e-commerce, that means more sales;
  
  
• if you sell advertising, it means more hits;
  
  
• if your aim is to cut costs on public enquiries, it means fewer telesales staff and overheads;
  
  
• if you use the Web to recruit staff, it means more applicants;
  
  
• if your purpose is to provide public services, it means minimising social exclusion.
  
  

"The net effect of all these potential benefits is by no means trivial. The overall cost-benefit of addressing accessibility is almost always significant, and often dramatic. Conversely, the costs of not taking it seriously can be equally important, as some firms have already found out to their cost."

Will the look of my site have to change?

Making your Website accessible is about ensuring that all of your visitors can access the information and resources on your site - not about changing the look of your site. If there are features of your current site that are innacessible to a particular groups of visitors - an access audit will point these out but that does not mean you must do away with these features. Instead it will recommend alternative ways to ensure that those excluded can access the same information or service.

Having said that, the audit may recommend changes related to colour contrast, your navigation scheme or readability that you may feel are worth adopting - because they will help you to attract more visitors to your site.

What exactly is an Access Audit?

An access audit matches your site against the World Wide Web Consortiums Web Accessibility Guidelines. Use of these guidelines will be combined with the 5 years experience the MCU has of building and auditing Websites. Depending on the size and complexity of your site the result will be a report of anywhere between 30 to 50 pages long which will include a short list of the most important changes needed, a complete discussion of each of the access problems, and a summary list of all of the recommended changes. In addition there will be a discussion document to help you get started down the road to making the changes required.

What standard will my Website be tested against?

The World Wide Web Consortiums Web Accessibility Initiative (http://www.w3c.org) have produced a set of standards that are recognised as the definitive authority on the subject of Accessible Web design.

Is it just about making my site accessible to disabled people?

No, accessibility on the Web is a much broader idea. There are now many different devices attached to the Web, for example, Televisions, Personal Digital Assistants, PCs, Macs, Telephones and Braile readers, to name just a few. Accessibility is about ensuring that all Internet connected devices are capable of accessing your service or information. This of course includes the assistive devices used by disabled people, like text only Web browsers or Web browsers that use synthisised speech.

Find out more from this short article by Pat Byrne: benefits and challenges of Web accessibility.

Contributed by Jim Byrne
Updated Wednesday 28 Jul 2004

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