Discriminate and be damned
Imagine a world where the simplest of online tasks - booking train tickets or a table at a restaurant, for example - were impossible because you simply couldn't access the information you needed. Believe it or not, this is a problem faced by countless people every day. A very real issue for a significant number of people, and one that shouldn't be ignored.
Recent research by the Disability Rights Commission found that 81% of UK websites are inaccessible yet the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) states that "a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services".
There's currently 8.5 million people in the UK alone living with a disability and a report by the British Dyslexia Association estimates that £180 billion is lost by UK businesses annually because their sites aren't fully accessible. Not to mention the browsers alienated by content. Technical and industry jargon may be part of your everyday language but are typically meaningless to the layman and can render a site inaccessible.
So having an accessible website is not only a legal requirement and morally right but it makes good business sense.
If you want a website that's accessible to all, get in touch.
What's accessible in theory may not be in practice so it's a good idea to test your site fully with as many user groups as possible before it goes live. Find out more about the work we do with Henshaws College and check out the Thackray Medical Museum's fully accessible site.
