What is Accessibility?

Website accessibility is the result of developing a website that can be used by everyone, regardless of their ability or disability. Disability discrimination is illegal in the UK (UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995) and companies may be sued if their website is not accessible to a disabled user. In the UK alone, an estimated 80% of websites are in breach of this law.

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a working group within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is responsible for setting the most commonly used set of accessibility guidelines. They have 3 basic levels as follows:

Priority Level A

Basic accessibility which renders your website usable by many Internet users.

Priority Level AA

Disabled users will generally be able to use your website, this is considered to be the industry standard.

Priority Level AAA

Highest standards of accessibility, upon request, Score Communications can take your site to this level.

What can we do for you?

At Score we ensure that all websites adhere to these guidelines, delivering sites that are accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices. Sites developed along these lines will continue to function correctly as traditional desktop browsers evolve, and as new Internet devices come to market.

Our talented design team has experience in developing for a wide range of accessibility requirements, working together with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to ensure that sites meet current guidelines.

Aside from the legal requirements, having an accessible and easily usable website will help build your company’s reputation as an organisation that cares and will avoid alienating visitors and losing potential sales.

It is also good practice to make sites accessible on all types of technology, not everyone has the most up to date browser and people with slower connections may disable pictures in order to download sites more quickly. With more people accessing sites remotely or via their mobile phones this will become increasingly important.

Score Communications can offer further advice and guidance on website accessibility guidelines and offers a free website review service.