Accessible Websites - a "Win-Win" Situation

Introduction

In this article I hope to propose and convince you that accessible websites are the way forward for any person or organisation serious about having an internet presence, and thus for any serious web developer.

Accessible websites provide what I believe is a "WIN-WIN SITUATION", whereby everyone benefits, to some extent.

I will explain what the terms Accessibility, Accessible website, and Web Standards are all about, and explain why we all SHOULD be advocating and using them.

I also attempt to explain why many current websites, though they may look fine, are not really accessible, and highlight some example problems.

Contents

What is an accessible website ?

Why you need to have an accessible website

The benefits of an accessible website

The problem : why accessibility is an issue

The solution : using standards

Conclusion : accessible websites are a "Win-Win" situation

F.A.Q. - Quick Questions and Answers

 

 

What is an accessible website ?

There is no simple or universally accepted definition that sums up what an accessible website is, but any of the following could be considered relevant. An accessible website is :

One that will be accessible to disabled people

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. This does not (and should not) just mean that they can ‘read’ a website; it means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web.

One that will be accessible to everyone

Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, such as people using a slow Internet connection, people with "temporary disabilities" such as a broken arm, and people with changing abilities due to aging or health related problems.

One that will be accessible to people regardless of the devices they use to access the Web.

All access to the internet and web pages is mediated through some type of technology. These are usually known to most people as Web browsers (or "user agents")

This is as true for disabled people using assistive technology as it is for everyone else. Assistive technologies include refreshable braille displays, voice activated or speaking browsers, and adapted keyboards.

There are also many more Web connected devices that are likely to increase in the future; mobile phones, televisions (web TV), PDAs, games consoles, in-car information systems, and so on, not to mention any new versions of web browsers as they are developed.

It should not matter whether a person is using an old browser such as Netscape 4, a modern browser such as FireFox, a screen reader, a text only browser, a mouse, a trackball, a touch pad, or a keyboard driven device (remember, not everyone can use a standard mouse !). The main relevant issue is basically the same; it is about accessibility of web content.

The more technologies that can be used to view, read, listen to, or somehow access a website, the more accessible it becomes.

 

Why you need to have an accessible website

It is a common myth that accessible websites are just for the benefit of people with disabilities ; in fact, accessible websites offer far more benefits than simply catering for the blind or partially sighted.

There are many benefits from having a standards compliant, accessible website. Here are some of the main ones :

These benefits are covered in more detail next.

 

The benefits of an accessible website

Increase your Visitors and potential customers

Literally millions of people across the world have some form of disability. Some of these disabilities may be mild, and some more severe, and the extent to which they hinder the person(s) from using the internet will vary. Yet these same people still want access to the web, its information and services.

These people also have billions of pounds to spend (it has been estimated at £50 billion in the UK alone) on products and services.

Excluding this many people from websites because they have not been designed with their needs in mind simply does not make any social or economic sense.

 

Higher Search Engine Rankings and greater Search Engine Visibility

It has been estimated that over 80% of internet users use search engines to find information on the web. Contrary to popular opinion, search engines do not merely look at keywords in Meta Tags hidden in web pages (and many do not use them at all !)

Search engines such as Google work by searching for and indexing page Content. They are able to index web pages and web sites more accurately if the content on those pages is well marked-up and well structured. For instance, many search engines give extra weight to keywords that appear in page headings and page title’s when indexing the page.

A web page where page title’s, headings and other content is incorrectly marked-up, or hidden amongst lots of unnecessary formatting and presentation mark-up code (using old style web design techniques), is more likely to suffer in the search engine rankings, when compared with a page with similar content that is correctly marked up.

Web page content that is clearly structured is thus easier for search engines to find and index correctly.

By using correct, standardised coding and markup techniques to make your website more accessible to users, you are not only creating a standards based, compliant web site, you are also making it more accessible to search engines.

This means it is more likely to appear in search engine listings, which in turn makes it easier for people to find your site, and thus helps to drive traffic (visitors) to your site.

 

Faster Download Times and Quicker Websites

Currently (late 2005) only approximately 17% of web users in the UK are connected to the internet via broadband (source:- Access to Broadband Campaign).

This is still overlooked by some web designers, who continue to create large pages stuffed full of redundant mark-up code, unnecessary ‘spacer’ images, complex nested table layouts, and too many large images.

Put simply, if your website is slow to display, your visitors may simply get bored and look elsewhere.

Well designed, standards compliant pages tend to be smaller (because they rely less on old ‘bloated’ coding and markup techniques, such as complicated nested table layouts and lots of formatting and presentation tags). As such, they tend to download and render (display) quicker on internet connected PC’s, and should also access faster on other web-enabled devices.

If people can download a website faster, then it’s more accessible, and vica versa.

As a side effect, faster loading pages can also save money by saving bandwidth (because pages are smaller to download) and may also generate additional traffic and revenue for certain websites.

A prime example is Multimap.com ; when they redesigned their site using web standards they estimated they would save up to 40,000 Gb of bandwidth per year due to the smaller web pages that were now being served. They also found that the quicker loading pages encouraged people to spend longer browsing the site; consequently revenues from advertising increased.

 

Future Proofing and Backward Compatibility

Currently a great deal of web access is done the ‘traditional’ way through PC’s (personal computers) using web Browsers like Internet Explorer, Netscape, or FireFox. However, this will almost certainly not always be the case. Computer technology, and the web in particular, is a fast changing place.

In the future more and more people may use other devices (or ‘user agents’) to access the internet, such as mobile phones, PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistants), in-car web enabled information systems, and a whole host of other such devices, including some as of yet un-thought off systems.

For example it has been estimated that over 58 million PDAs will be sold in 2008 alone (source:- eTForecasts).

The number of Worldwide Internet users will top 1 billion in mid 2005 (source:- eTForecasts).

This is potentially a very large (not to mention lucrative) audience for any website.

Will your current website work effectively on these new access media ? Will it be compatible with new browsing technologies as they are developed for these new users ?

By developing using web standards and with accessibility in mind, web content is both future-proofed and made more backward compatible with older browsers. Using standards is the best approach we currently have to enable websites to work on the widest range of user agents.

Pages developed using web standards and accessibility guidelines will display more consistently across newer browsers and platforms, whilst still being viewable to older browsers. Granted, the content may not necessarily look the same in old, ‘non-standard compliant’ browsers, but at least the content will still be available - and therefore accessible.

 

Reduced development time and costs

Part of the process of developing to web standards involves separating the structure and content of web pages from their presentational and mark-up code, by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

Divorcing structure and content information from the way it is presented affords several key benefits :

Future re-designs and maintenance are made quicker and easier if the formatting and presentation instructions aren’t wrapped up inside the page’s HTML code. It is possible to change a sites’ whole look and feel (or ‘skin’) with less additional effort by simply designing and applying a new stylesheet.

There is no longer a need to produce multiple versions of web sites to account for all the little "quirks" of different web browsers and the way they lay out pages differently. Any standards compliant browser (now or in the future) should present the content more or less as it is intended to be seen.

It allows the possibility of having different ‘views’ of that content for different users (for example different font sizes and contrasting colour schemes), and to so do with minimal extra effort.

 

Perception and Reputation of your website, company or organisation

By making your website accessible and standards compliant, you are effectively transmitting a positive message about your organisation, and its commitment to inclusion and participation of all members of society.

 

Sites designed to Web Standards can be Validated and tested for errors

The W3C has a free Markup Validation Service that checks Web pages for conformance to W3C Recommendations and other standards.

The W3C validator helps confirm the validity of Web pages by checking for errors in their code markup (in formats like HTML and XHTML).

This is one way to help assure the Quality of a website, but it is only possible if a site has been designed using standards; without working to standards, no rules have been applied to test against, so it is not possible to validate web pages.

 

Staying Legal and within the law

Making your website accessible is not only desirable, it is a legal requirement.

If you provide a product or service via the web, and your site is not accessible to disabled people, then you are potentially breaking the law.

In the UK the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (1995) tries to ensure that websites are accessible to disabled, blind and partially sighted users.

The relevant parts of the DDA that refer to websites came into force in October 1999, whilst the Code of Practice for the Act was published by the DRC in May 2002. This means that a large number of existing websites may already be in breach of the law !

Websites that offer goods and services to the public must comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. The Code of Practice makes it clear that websites are included within the scope of the Disability Discrimination Act; it specifically mentions websites, giving reference to an online reservation and booking service.

The DRC, on their website, clearly state that :-

"Increasingly, we all obtain information, goods and services through the internet. The design of websites is therefore important and they should be accessible to disabled people." (Source :- DRC website, Annual Review Home, Foreword page)

and also that :-

"All organisations that provide goods, facilities or services to the public, whether paid for or for free, are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, no matter how large or small they are."

At the present time (late 2005) no UK business or organisation has been successfully prosecuted for having an inaccessible website. However, this is likely to change at some time in the future (and there have already been successful court cases in other countries).

The DRC has stated on its own website that it has already launched a formal investigation into 1000 websites. The RNIB also claim that they have considered taking up a number of legal cases against companies or organisations with regard to accessibility issues on their websites. When challenged, these organisations have usually made the necessary changes to become compliant, rather than risking legal action.

If and when a case does go to court, evidence from court cases in countries with similar legislation to that of the UK suggests that the W3C’s Accessibility Guidelines may be used to assess a website’s accessibility conformance, and may strongly influence the outcome of the case.

 

It’s the ‘Right thing to do’

Technology should be easy to use and accessible to all - this vision defines one of the principle goals of the web.

The Internet should be about connecting people, allowing them to communicate, to share information, and including them, rather than excluding them.

Besides providing all of the above mentioned benefits, making your websites standards compliant and more accessible is part of an ethical approach to the Web; it is one means by which we can all contribute something to the web, for the benefit of all concerned. The internet was designed to be a place that is FOR ALL, where the content can be accessed and engaged BY ALL.

As more accessible, standards compliant Web sites become available, people with disabilities are more able to use and contribute to the Web more effectively.

 

The problem : why accessibility is an issue

So, what is the problem with many Websites today ? Why are more and more people talking of Accessibility and Standards ?

Well, the problem is that there are an awful lot of websites out there which do not conform to Web Standards. More specifically, they have been developed so that their content looks fine (is accessible) when viewed on, say, a PC using one or two of the more well-known web browsers such as Internet Explorer or Netscape.

However, when viewed on other browsers, with other access devices, or on other platforms, they may not display correctly, or even worse do not display at all. Their content has become Inaccessible to some section of the target audience.

This is because such websites have not been developed correctly to current web standards, and little attention has been paid to the correct mark-up of their content, structure, and presentation.

For years web authors have decided to "enhance" their pages as if they were using a desktop publisher so that they would look good in a particular browser, say, Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Many of these authors did not realise that their websites would later become illegible, invisible, or generally inaccessible to many viewers. However, this has been known to happen, due to a combination of faulty implementation in popular browsers and less than careful attention to the correct use of the mark-up language.

A prime example in case is the overly popular use of the HTML <FONT> tag, e.g. <FONT SIZE=1>

Imagine a web author has liberally inserted the <FONT FACE="whatever" SIZE ="take your pick"> tag in her pages in the hope that others will see what she sees on her Macintosh. She has done this at the top of every page in a bold blue font to make the headings stand out. This is fine for those viewers using the same browser and version number on another Mac, but what about someone using a different browser, on a different platform, or someone using a text-only browser ?

Specifying color to emphasise a specific bit of text might be seen by many as a good thing; but use of the <FONT COLOR...> tag overrides both the documents and the user’s choice in colors. If the user has decided to set their colours to white text on a blue background (to provide high contrast for instance), the above example may produce text that is effectively invisible.

In many browsers versions and implementations, support for the FONT element has been broken, inconsistent, or known to be prone to unpredictable results.

Using HTML formatting tags such as <FONT>, instead of other structural tags that give semantic meaning to a document (the <H1> heading tags and the <BIG> and <SMALL> tags), means some viewers lose structural cues, so the page’s overall accessibility decreases.

Such very popular use (misuse ?!) of the font tag has become a hindrance to pages all over the Web because it makes too many assumptions about the user’s browser, system and configuration, and allows less flexibility in the way web pages are presented.

The font element was also deprecated (made outdated) in HTML 4.01, and deprecated elements may become obsolete and unsupported in future versions of HTML, so web sites developed using these techniques are not guaranteed to work correctly in the future.

 

Another good example is the well used trick of using tables to layout web sites. Many website have overly complicated, intricate nested tables within tables to achieve a reasonable looking design. Often these are used along with ‘invisible’ images called ‘spacer gifs’ to pad out spaces and achieve the correct layout.

The problem with this is that when these pages are accessed or viewed by assistive technologies such as Text-only browsers, screen readers, or other devices, they tend to be ‘linearised’ (processed in one long line).

Many usability and accessibility problems stem from the translation of such graphical web pages with complex layouts into a non graphical linear version. Information flow which relied on the position of one page element or piece of text, in relation to another, can be lost when the page is linearised. All that ends up being presented to some users is a soup of mixed up text and image ‘announcements’, with no meaningful separation or logical grouping of page elements and text.

 

Web sites designed using techniques like those mentioned above can also quickly become large, complex monsters that are hard to change and maintain. They tend to develop ‘bloated’ pages that are full of lots of presentational mark-up code, which in turn uses more bandwidth and causes pages to both download and render (display) more slowly in web browsers.

As a final example problem, consider web sites that use images to represent text, because the author could not find a font that they liked, so they created their own graphic element to make the page look ‘nice’.

If the alternative text attribute of the image is not set, or no text equivalent is provided, users whose browsers do not support images will be alerted to its existence, but will not know what purpose it serves - which is frustrating.

On other websites, images are frequently used as links; for instance, a small picture of a product such as a radio, which when clicked on moves to a more detailed information page. The alternative link text for the image might only say "click here" - which is of little or no use to a blind person who cannot see the image of the radio.

 

As the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has put it :-

"Content developers may be tempted to use (or misuse) constructs that achieve a desired formatting effect on older browsers. They must be aware that these practices cause accessibility problems and must consider whether the formatting effect is so critical as to warrant making the document inaccessible to some users."

and also :-

"Using markup improperly -- not according to specification -- hinders accessibility. Misusing markup for a presentation effect (e.g., using a table for layout or a header to change the font size) makes it difficult for users with specialized software to understand the organization of the page or to navigate through it. Furthermore, using presentation markup rather than structural markup to convey structure (e.g., constructing what looks like a table of data with an HTML PRE element) makes it difficult to render a page intelligibly to other devices (refer to the description of difference between content, structure, and presentation)."

 

The solution : using standards

How do we cope with ensuring that websites will work on the huge diversity of browsers and other output devices available now and in the future ?

How do we make websites that are more accessible to a greater number of people ?

The answer is that we use a system that is already in place and well defined; all we have to do is follow the rules.

To make websites and their content accessible to people, the first step to achieving this is to ensure that our pages are accessible to the technology that those people will be using to read them. The way to ensure this is to create websites using standard (X)HTML and recommended standard techniques (such as CSS) and guidelines - in other words, to follow web standards.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) state :-

"Mark up documents with the proper structural elements. Control presentation with style sheets rather than with presentation elements and attributes." ( W3c )

In other words, separate a page’s structural elements and content from the presentational elements.

Web pages ‘marked up’ correctly in such a manner to web standards will work for people using a wider variety of different browsers and computers.

It is generally accepted that if your site conforms to the good practice outlined in the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), then you have demonstrated your commitment to making your site accessible.

In fact, designing to web standards and W3C recommendations is about the best approach we currently have to enable websites to work on the widest range of ‘user agents’ (browsers).

The actual presentation (i.e. the look and feel of our web pages) may be different on each browser, and the details can be left to the individual browser developers or a users own prefered style sheet. However, the logical structure of the pages will always be displayed correctly.

As long as the website has been designed to web standards - and as long as the end users are using a standards compliant browser or other access device - then the website and the information contained within it will be accessible.

 

Why and how does using Web Standards help accessibility ?

Using standard HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) will mean your pages are more flexible in the way they can be presented to the end users.

Using standard HTML and W3C guidelines also ensures that your pages will work on the widest range of hardware and software - across different platforms and devices, making them accessible to more people.

 

Using CSS is now considered the preferred way to format page content because it helps to separate a page’s structural elements from the presentation code behind it. It’s quicker and easier to change the page display if the formatting and presentation instructions aren’t wrapped up inside the page’s HTML code.

Using CSS will also generally reduce the size of your markup, and thus speed up download times, while making web pages more accessible at the same time.

Among the main benefits of designing web sites with CSS are :

CSS is now widely implemented in many modern browsers, across many platforms (Windows, Linux, Apple Mac) including Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, and Konqueror. Because it is a W3C recommendation, it is highly likely to be implemented as a de facto standard by all future browsers.

 

In legal terms, evidence from court cases in countries with similar legislation to that of the UK suggests that the W3C Guidelines are also likely to be used as the primary way to measure accessibility of a website, so designing to W3C recommendations is desirable where accessibility is concerned.

 

Developing using Web Standards also allows us to Validate our web pages.

Why bother to Validate ?

Well, you would want to spell check and proof read a document before you put it on public display, wouldn’t you ?

Validation serves a similar purpose to spell checking and proofreading for grammar and syntax.

Just as texts in a natural language can include spelling or grammar errors, web pages using Markup languages may not follow their rules correctly, and so contain errors and deprecated (out of date) tags in their code.

Validation is one way to help with the Quality Assurance aspects of a website. As the W3C says :-

"A valid Web page is not necessarily a good web page [(the design may let it down)], but an invalid Web page has little or no chance of ever being a good web page." (Source :- FAQ for the W3C Markup Validator)

Validation helps with the practical issue that non-valid pages are (by definition) relying on error-correction by a web browser or some other ‘user agent’. This error correction can (and does) vary radically between the different web browsers, and even across different versions of the same browser.

Web designers have historically relied on the "quirks" of some browsers to achieve design and layout techniques on their sites, only to later suddenly find their pages displayed differently, or sometimes not at all.

This happened for pages designed for Netscape 1.1, which suddenly appeared totally blank when Netscape 2.0 was released. Internet Explorer has also had its fair share of problems and quirks, and while it initially set out to be bug-compatible with Netscape, it has moved more towards standards compliance in later releases.

If we are to avoid these types of problems in the future, then the only real way is for us all to adhere to standards for web development.

The W3C has a free Markup Validation Service that checks Web pages for conformance to W3C Recommendations and other standards, so the only excuse not to use it is bad practices on behalf of web developers themselves.

 

Conclusion : accessible websites are a "Win-Win" situation

Designing a website with accessibility in mind (or making an existing one more accessible than it currently is) is likely to improve that site for all users, not just those with certain disabilities.

People create web sites for many reasons, but in general they have something to say; information to provide, a message or feelings to express, a product or service to sell.

Smart web developers know that if you want to get a message across, it is in your interest to make your work accessible.

Whether your goal is to simply offer a better experience for users and increase perception of your site or service, or to improve customer retention, loyalty, and turnover, accessibility makes perfect sense.

A little thought at the design stage can produce a site which is easy for everyone to use, not just disabled visitors; that might make all the difference between the success and failure of any web presence.

Whichever way you look at it, making websites accessible to all is a win-win situation.

Everybody benefits, without exception.

 

 

F.A.Q. - Quick Questions and Answers

Q) What is an "Accessible Website" ?

There is no complete or universally accepted definition of an accessible website, but it is usually taken to mean that it is one that will be accessible to people with disabilities.

Web users with disabilities often use Assistive technologies such as a text only browser, screen readers, refreshable Braille displays, voice activated or speaking browsers, adapted keyboards, trackballs, touch pads, and other alternative input devices other than a standard mouse.

There are also many more Web connected devices that are likely to increase in the future; mobile phones, televisions (web TV), PDAs, games consoles, in-car information systems, and so on, not to mention any new versions of web browsers as they are developed.

The more technologies that can be used to view, read, listen to, or somehow access a website, the more accessible it becomes.

Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, such as people using a slow Internet connection, people with "temporary disabilities" such as a broken arm, and people with changing abilities due to aging or health related problems.

A truly accessible website is thus one that will be accessible to everyone, or as many people as is practically possible, regardless of the method and devices they use to access the Web.

 

Q) If my site is designed to be accessible will it still look good ?

Yes. It is a myth (though thankfully a diminishing one) that accessible websites have to be text only or cater for the lowest common denominator of browser / user agent. There are no good reasons why an accessible website should be less attractive or visually appealing than a site that has not been designed with accessibility in mind.

It is perfectly possible to achieve accessibility without compromising your site design; existing web pages can also be re-coded in an accessible way without altering the visual design to any great extent.

Whether a website is well designed and presented or not depends much more on the talents of the Web designer, and this applies equally to accessible websites.

By using web compliant standards and XHTML to mark up your site content properly, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to present it to those browsers that support it, an accessible website can look very visually appealing and attractive, but still ‘degrade gracefully’ so that it is viewable on older browsers.

 

Q) Doesn’t Accessibility and Validation mean boring, dull looking, text based websites ?

No. This is simply untrue, and is what the W3C calls "head-in-the-sand ignorance".

Websites that are accessible, standards compliant, and Validate in accordance with the W3C recommendations can be dynamic, fresh, full of active content, and look very professional.

 

Q) Isn’t it HARDER to develop a web page to conform to standards ?

It is true that there is an initial learning curve, some old habits have to be broken, and a more rigorous approach to checking and testing has to be taken.

However, websites that are designed to current W3C web standards and recommendations are, in the long term, easier to create and, more importantly, maintain.

 

Q) There are not that many disabled / blind / partially sighted people who use the web, so why bother making a site more accessible ?

This is a flawed and inaccurate piece of logic. How do you KNOW how many disabled people use the Internet ? How do you know (can you prove) that they do NOT use, or want to use, your website ?

How do you know and ensure you are not discriminating against a section of your target audience ?

Actual numbers vary, but one estimate is that there are approximately 8.5 million disabled people in the UK alone. Another estimate puts this figure closer to 11 million.

These disabilities will vary in severity, but some of them can pose barriers when trying to use the Web and to access web sites.

For instance, everyone over 45 experiences age-related vision loss that makes reading small print and distinguishing colors difficult. (Source :- Lighthouse International, www.lighthouse.org)

Given these figures, doesn’t it make sense to provide better access to websites, to ensure that the websites we build are accessible to as wide an audience as possible ?

Also, accessibility is not just about people with disabilities - it is also about ensuring websites are (and will be) accessible on current (and future) access technologies and media, whatever those devices or browsers may be.

 

Q) If my Website is not Accessible, is it breaking the Law ?

In simple terms, quite possibly.

In the UK there is a general obligation on the operators of web sites to make their sites accessible to the disabled, under the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995.

The DRC, on their website, clearly state that :-

"Increasingly, we all obtain information, goods and services through the internet. The design of websites is therefore important and they should be accessible to disabled people." (Source :- DRC website, Annual Review Home, Foreword page)

and also that :-

"All organisations that provide goods, facilities or services to the public, whether paid for or for free, are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, no matter how large or small they are."

If you provide a product or service via the web, and your site is not accessible to disabled people, then you are potentially breaking the law. Indeed, a large number of existing websites may already be in breach of the law.

In the UK the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) tries to ensure that websites are accessible to disabled, blind and partially sighted users.

The parts of the DDA that are relevant to websites came into force in October 1999, whilst the Code of Practice for the Act was published by the DRC in May 2002.

This Code of Practice makes it clear that websites are included within the scope of the Disability Discrimination Act, and Websites that offer goods and services to the public are expected to comply with the Act. The Code of Practice specifically mentions websites, giving reference to an online reservation and booking service.

 

Q) Have there been any successful legal cases against in-accessible websites ?

At the present time (late 2005) no UK business or organisation has been successfully prosecuted for having an inaccessible website. However, this is likely to change at some time in the future.

There have already been successful cases in other countries;

A well publicised legal case concerning Web accessibility took place in Australia in 2000 (Maguire vs. SOCOG) when a blind man successfully sued the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) over their inaccessible website.

UK courts may take guidance from the outcome of this case, since the Australian Disability Discrimination Act quite closely resembles that of the UK’s own.

UK courts may also take into account the New York case against Ramada.com and Priceline.com, who were also successfully sued over the accessibility of their websites. The operators had to undertake to pay compensation and to improve their web sites’ accessibility to settle the case.

The DRC has stated on its own website that it has already launched a formal investigation into 1000 websites. The RNIB also claim that they have considered taking up a number of legal cases against companies or organisations with regard to accessibility issues on their websites. When challenged, these organisations have usually made the necessary changes to become compliant, rather than risking legal action.

If and when a case does go to court, evidence from court cases in countries with similar legislation to that of the UK suggests that the W3C’s Accessibility Guidelines may be used to assess a website’s accessibility conformance, and may strongly influence the outcome of the case.

 

Q) Who or what is the W3C ?

The W3C is the usual abbrviation for the World Wide Web Consortium.

The W3C was founded in October 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web) to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols and guidelines that promote its evolution and ensure long-term growth for the Web.

The W3C is now an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web Standards and Guidelines, and is dedicated to building consensus around Web technologies.

To this effect the W3C also promotes and advocates interoperable technologies.

In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any hardware and software used to access the Web to work together. The W3C refers to this goal as “Web interoperability.”

 

Q) What is meant by a "User Agent" ?

A "User Agent" is the W3C’s generic term for a web access device or "Web Browser".

A User Agent can broadly be defined as any device or technology which enables a person to access the Web, or some content on the Web. Most people will know these as desktop graphical browsers (Web Browsers) such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla FireFox.

However, the term also refers to a whole host of other devices and technologies which are in widespread use, including text browsers, mobile phones, voice browsers, multimedia players, plug-ins, and some assistive technologies used in conjunction with browsers such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, special keyboards, voice recognition software, and other technical solutions which allow people to interact with a computer.

There are also devices for specific groups of users with blindness or low vision, for instance speech output or a Braille display; other groups of users may use devices with small displays, such as PDA’s or in-car based personal computers.

 

Q) What is meant by "Validation" of web pages ?

The W3C has a free Markup Validation Service that checks Web pages for conformance to W3C Recommendations and other standards, and indicates where any errors in the mark-up might have occurred.

Developing using Web Standards also allows us to Validate our web pages, as part of the Quality Assurance aspects of a website. A web page that has validated correctly can then confidently display the W3C’s "Valid HTML" banner logo.

Why bother to Validate ?

Well, you would want to spell check and proof read a document before you put it on public display, wouldn’t you ?

Validation serves a similar purpose to spell checking and proofreading for grammar and syntax.

Just as texts in a natural language can include spelling or grammar errors, web pages using Markup languages may not follow their rules correctly, and so contain errors and deprecated (out of date) tags in their code.

Validation is one way to help with the Quality Assurance aspects of a website.

Validation helps with the practical issue that non-valid pages are (by definition) relying on error-correction by a web browser or some other ‘user agent’. This error correction can (and does) vary radically between the different web browsers, and even across different versions of the same browser.

Web designers have historically relied on the "quirks" of some browsers to achieve design and layout techniques on their sites, only to later suddenly find their pages displayed differently, or sometimes not at all.

If we are to avoid these types of problems in the future, then the only real way is for us all to adhere to standards for web development, and validation helps in this process.

 

 

About the Author

Colin started web development many years ago as one of the chief ASP developers involved with an Intranet project.

A logical progression of this was into designing websites - both static sites and dynamic data driven ones that utilise a back-end database and content management system.

More recently he found out about the Web Standards Project, and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and took inspiration from the many examples of good, accessible websites that are now emerging all over the web. He has now made a commitment to re-designing many of his existing websites to make them more accessible and standards compliant.

Colin’s principle philosophy and commitment is now to deliver websites that are easy to use, elegant, accessible, and standards-compliant, and to promote and advocate accessible web design.

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