Website Design Principles - Accessibility

From December 1996 it has been against the law for service providers to treat disabled people less favourably than other people for a reason related to their disability, from 1999 they have had to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, for example making changes to the way they provide services, and from 2004 they have had to make reasonable adjustments to the physical features of their premises to overcome physical barriers to access. For website operators, the 1999 requirements that "reasonable adjustments" must be made means that all UK websites should have considered accessibility issues AND made adjustments to their website.

So what accessibility features can be implemented?

The principle way a website designer can improve access is to simply make full use of the many accessibility features built in to the HTML
specification.

• Caption data tables, use correct <TH> tags for column headings rather than a standard <TR> row.
• Use Headings <H1> and Paragraph <P> tags correctly, many screen readers for sight-impaired users allow the user to tab between headings and so if they are correctly used can allow the user to make sense of the document structure.
• Add ALT tags to images, and add ALT='' to non-important images (eg. spacers).

There are of course many more aspects to consider, which is why employing a professional website designer can be very cost-effective in helping you to meet your legal obligations.

How can Fearntech help?

We can re-write your existing website to implement accessibility features, or can add them as part of a new design. Contact us for a no-obligation quote, or if you simply wish to discuss any issues further.

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