Be Competitive, Comply With Website Accessibility Standards

Nicholas Le Seelleur, a director of SiteMorse, feels that too little is done to enforce and promote better website accessibility standards for the benefit of Britain’s 8-10 million disabled users. Many organisations still declare compliance when evidence proves they are not compliant. So how can compliance help you to sustain a competitive advantage?

Even in its early days, The Body Shop made a play on ethics with regards to the testing of cosmetics on animals to promote itself, and some other organisations still do just the same. So by creating websites that meet and surpass the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act and the W3C’s Website Accessibility Initiative (WAI), you can create and sustain a competitive advantage over those who’ve not yet quite understood the ethical and potential economic, financial and legal implications of not being compliant. So is your website truly accessible and not just usable?

Where Confusion Begins

Alan Mather of Diverdiver.com shows why there should be more leadership from the DRC and other bodies with a vested interested in promoting website accessibility. The DRC’s position seems to promote a lack of clarity, he explains:

"Tom Adams, at eGU, speaking at a recently Parliamentary Internet Group said that there needs to be some reference to standards. The DRC doesn't agree. So companies and public sector bodies are left to do what they think is right, whether it's A, AA, AAA, LocalGov LAWS standards, RNIB, RNID, Bobby, DDA, DRC guidelines or whatever. Plainly that's daft! Meanwhile, there are greater than 200 disability rights groups watching to see what happens.’

"Recent tests by SiteMorse, which produces monthly accessibility compliance league tables, show that even the DRC fails some of the very basic A and AA requirements. The suggestion that the organisation needs to improve, even though it claims to be compliant, was met with a frosty reception. The point is that the DRC and the other standard bearers for website accessibility should be doing their utmost to clarify the legal duties for compliance by enacting them in practice. They should not claim to be fully compliant when evidence shows that improvements are required. Test for usability: yes, but at least pass the basic website accessibility standards.

Researched and produced by Graham Jarvis for SiteMorse.com

www.sitemorse.com