Accessibility Issues

New site has to be Accessible

[Brougham]

Just about to start redesigning a significant site for a Tourism Authority in the U.K. Client has requested that the site be complient with current and forthcoming legislation. I'm aware of the Bobby site but I'm not aware of any certifiable complience standard for U.K. sites - especially given the considerable tightening up of the laws in October 2004.

The client needs me to be able to formally state that the new site meets a certain accreditable standard so that they cannot be sued for non complience.

I'd be grateful for any pointers in the right direction.

Many thanks.

[archives]

Brougham

I assume you have already looked at the UK government website and checked their accessibility guidelines and levels of clearance.

Archives

[Brougham]

Many thanks Archives.

There is much guidance available here and elsewhere but it's becoming clear that there is no certificate available which if achieved, means you can't be sued. Demonstration of 'Due Diligenge' to adherence may be the only defence.

Looks like we will all be going out on a limb if asked by the client to formally confirm that the site is complient.

[ytswy]

You might want to try the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind), they have some sort of audit program, details here:
[rnib.org.uk...]
They give you a logo if you meet their standards.

It seems aimed at the sort of level of site you are working on.

As a side note their support for small sites/businesses is practically non-existant, it annoys me somewhat that they often bang on about accessibility (well I saw an interview with the RNIB spokesmen salivating about legal penalities for any non-accessible site), but provide no information on how to do it, and all their services are aimed firmly at large organisations and the public sector.

[Brougham]

ytswy,

Thanks for this. It's interesting to note that if you run the website operated by a well known society for the disabled through a access validator - it doesn't do well at all. Sticky me if you want the details. Not for public posting I would think.

[benihana]

how about looking into the w3c's WAI?

[w3.org...]

i think you can get a little logo stating level one two or three compliance.

ben

[webgirl]

Yeah, that's just what I was going to suggest Ben! It's a very effective way of stating your site is accessible. Priority 1 is the most important and also has the most obvious ones (i.e. always use alt tags etc...).

Also, stick to all W3C guidelines on code (whichever versions you use) and get it validated so you can have the validated logos on the site too.

[BlobFisk]

[webmasterworld.com...]

HTH

[archives]

Brougham

Remember though you cannot meet ALL the guidelines without increasing your management resources. You can only go so far matching your target audiences against the website being designed. EG One of my websites is a government archives with digitised docs, like the PRO. Obviously I cannot afford to get transcripts for every doc nor translations. So the clients are informed early about the limitations of the website and we make a point of asking them to contact us for further assistance.

The Royal Blind Society agrees with this approach.

Archives

[elgumbo]

There's a good interview with Julie Howell from Royal National Institute of the Blind on sitepoint - sitepoint.com/article/1236