The importance of accessibility

The BBC News website has recently released a number of articles outlining the sheer volume of websites that do not meet even the most basic accessibility standards. Ninety seven percent of websites in a recent Nomensa survey did not provide even minimum levels of accessibility. With it now a legal requirement for eCommerce websites to cater for users with disabilities there is no excuse.

When commissioning a new website or upgrading your current one, the accessibility of your website must be considered in all stages of the development. A number of common pitfalls found from the study are outlined below:

• 93% failed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphics
• 73% relied on JavaScript for important functionality
• 78% used colours with poor contrast, causing issues for those with colour blindness
• 98% did not follow industry web standards for the programming code
• 97% did not allow people to alter or resize pages
• 89% offered poor page navigation
• 87% used pop-ups causing problems for those using screen magnification software