Why Web Accessibility?

By erigena, published 23rd October 2006.

There are many reasons why you should strive to make your web site as accessible as possible:

The United Kingdom's Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful to provide a service that is not accessible to everybody (it is irrelevant whether the service is provided with or without payment). Although initially education was excluded from the DDA, this exclusion was removed in 2001, with the introduction of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA).

In 1999, the DDA was extended to cover information, goods facilities and services supplied via the internet.The implications for your organisation of having a website that is accessible to disabled visitors is not just legal conformance; you will be building a reputation as a company that cares, and delivering your message to a significantly wider audience. Also worth noting is the fact that some of your staff may have special accessibility needs. If a member of your organisation cannot do their job due to accessibility barriers within company intranets or websites, they too may be entitled to take legal action against your company.

Economic Reasons

Increased Market Share

An accessible website helps open markets to people with disabilities as well as people using older browsers, new technologies such as mobile devices and different platforms. Just over 10% of the population of the United Kingdom have some form of disability, and designing your digital resources to be accessible makes economic sense.

Older Population

In a matter of years, the increasing elderly population has the potential to comprise a massive 40% of the overall UK population. This group will constitute a major community with significant influence and spending power (as well as significant accessibility needs).

Improved usability

The provision of a good level of accessibility can significantly enhance the usability of a website by:

  • Providing clear, consistent navigation (which makes finding information easier).
  • Providing understandable, clear content (which encourages people to stay longer and to return to the website).

Users are more likely to return to your website (as well as recommend it to others) if they find the expericence pleasant, and can easily understand and navigate through the site. Good usabiliy will also minimise the time necessary for people to complete tasks such as purchasing products.

Reduced website maintenance costs

The use of CSS results in improved server loading and network performance, as accessible pages tend to have reduced file sizes (due to the seperation of content and presentation and reduced dependence on media and graphics).

Technical Reasons

Future proofing & compatibility

Following accessibility guidelines, and the use of W3C technologies which promote accessibility, allows sites to gracefully degrade, as they will remain readable and accessible as browsers and web standards change. Also of benefit is increased compatibility across different platforms, browsers,and devices.

Search Engine Indexing

Your site will be more easily and accurately indexed by search engines (and found by more potential customers) if good accessibility techniques are applied.