Webmaster Resources : Benefits of An Accessible Website

Summary : This is not just their problem, users who can't access your website are potential customers your business cannot reach.

The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law, and as such must be made accessible to everyone.

Web masters in some organizations are making accessibility improvements to their web designs, but many are seemingly ambivalent to making the accessibility adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care?

Why You Should Care about Disabled Internet Users

The statistics on the number of users who may face difficulties due to website accessibility issues are quite startling:

• There are 8.6 million registered disabled people in the UK - 14% of the population (source: DRC)
• One in 12 men and one in 200 women have some form of color blindness - 9% of the UK population (source: Institution of Electrical Engineers)
• Two million UK residents have a sight problem - 4% of the population (source: RNIB)
• There are 12 million people aged 60 or over - 21% of the UK population (source: UK government)

Although there is inevitably some overlap between the aforementioned groups, adding up these numbers provides a total of 48% of the UK population that could potentially face problems with your website's accessibility. That's an extraordinarily high number. This is not just their problem, users who can't access your website are potential customers your business cannot reach.

It's Not Just Disabled Users Who Can't Access Your Website

Non-disabled people may also experience difficulties with your website's accessibility. Not everyone is viewing your website on the latest version of Internet Explorer, with all the plug-ins and programs required for optimal access.

If your website relies on images, Flash design or JavaScript, and fails to provide alternatives, it is inaccessible to a number of web users. The following examples area common occurrence:

• Users on slow connections regularly turn images off to enable a quicker download time. Some browsers, such as the text-only Lynx browser do not display images at all.
• Not every user has downloaded the latest Flash program that's needed to access your site. Additionally, the download time on Flash design heavy websites often takes so long that users lose patience and don't even wait to see the content. Just 25% of web users in the UK are connected to the Internet via broadband (source: National Statistics).
• JavaScript is a scripting language that can cause changes to a page, often through mouse functions, buttons, or other actions from the user. For example, pop-ups are opened using JavaScript. JavaScript is unsupported by about 5% of web users, either because they have turned it off to prevent pop-up adverts or because their browser doesn't support it (source: The Counter). Any JavaScript-driven content provided on your website is inaccessible to these users.
• PDAs, mobile phones and WebTV have limited support for large images, Flash and JavaScript. You can test your website by downloading the free WebTV viewer. You can also check how your website looks on a mobile phone with the Wapalizer. Don't underestimate the importance of this: in 2008 alone, an estimated 58 million PDAs will be sold (source: eTForecast) and one third of the world's population will own a wireless device (source: ClickZ)

Overall, it serves every web master to check and maintain a web design's accessibility. Research has shown, not everyone can reach, read, or view what you assume is a great web site. The greater number of people who can reach and use your site, the more successful your web site becomes in delivering your message. A well-tuned, accessible site is every webmaster's concern and goal.

About the author : Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com.