Website Accessibilty

The Accessibility Requirement

There is now a legal requirement for UK websites to provide web pages that are accessible to disabled users. All important website content should comply at least to Priority Level A as laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium Accessibility Guidelines.

How can websites conform to the Accessibility Guidelines?

If websites use animation, such as Flash, they will not conform. However, the guidelines state that if a page cannot conform an accessible alternative should be provided and this can be achieved by placing a link on the page to a text version. Almost all pages on this site link to fully accessible text versions of the pages (some content on our site has no sensible text alternative).

The business case for Accessibility

As well as the legal and moral argument for accessibility, it makes good business sense to include such a large group of users. Website owners, who do not, risk losing out. As well as this, a fully accessible website presents a more professional and responsible image and is more likely to be linked to from quality sites including search engines.

Accessibility solutions

We made accessibility a priority when we developed our website management systems Total Control and Total Control Cart. These solutions automatically provide text versions of every page, based on the content that a website owner enters into the site, without any intervention on the part of the website owner. But even if our customers require bespoke websites, we can provide a text only version similar to the way we've implemented it on this website.

If your website does not meet accessibility guidelines but you would like it to, then please contact us for a free quote. We can redesign your website to A, AA, or AAA standard or, if you wish to retain content that doesn't conform, we can implement a text only version of your site.