Accessibility

[Hanorah]

In my day job (2 days a week since I had my children) we have just had to totally revamp our company web site due to the new assessability laws. I have checked my own site out on the free

http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp

and it fails dismally especially on the jpg images alt tags. I know I must find the time to work on this this but it seems like such a big task at the moment.

I was just wondering if any other owners were aware that all websites are legally supposed to be assessable to blind or disabled people or at the very least taking steps to address it.

Your thoughts on this would be very welcome.

[livinginitaly]

Hi Hanorah,

This was discussed in some length in this thread viewtopic.php?t=170.

Seems posters are extremely divided on the subject ranging from 'all for it' to 'it doesn't include me'

My own personal view is that sooner or later all sites will have to comply .... though hopefully, it'll be 'much later' and by then certain 'standards' will be applied to browsers and operating systems.

Can you say who the company is that has redeveloped their site? ..... i'm guessing it's a 'biggy', either that or has some connection with government departments.

[Sue Dyer]

That's a great link - thanks. I've fallen down on the alt tags too, something I know I should put right and another few things which I don't understand but I'll print out and maybe ask the techies about!

I had a very complex conversation with a web designer working with us (at my day job) on a cycle tourism website. He highlighted new laws and the problem of colour blindness, he quoted what seemed a high proportion (20%) of the male population who suffer from varying degrees of this.

He was saying that certain colours of text on colured backgrounds would just appear as a black square to people with green/blue colour blindness. He told me there is a filter you can look at the screen with which makes you see the website as a colourblind person would. I'll ask him if the filter is available online.

Yikes!! More work to do!!

[Hanorah]

You guessed right it is a London local authority. I work in the E-Comms department which makes the poor results of my own site even more shameful as in theory I should have known better.

[livinginitaly]

Soodyer wrote:

I had a very complex conversation with a web designer working with us (at my day job) on a cycle tourism website. He highlighted new laws and the problem of colour blindness, he quoted what seemed a high proportion (20%) of the male population who suffer from varying degrees of this.

Yes, i admit it ..... i'm a colour blind webdesigner! <sniff> Not in any 'major' way though, just red / green deficient which is apparently the most common (around 1 in 10 males and 1 in 1000 females). I think that's probably the reason why i start off building all my sites in a 'shades of grey' colour scheme. Don't want to get 'bogged down' with colour until the 'layout' is ready.

Hanorah wrote:

You guessed right it is a London local authority. I work in the E-Comms department which makes the poor results of my own site even more shameful as in theory I should have known better.

Thought as much, not many companies are going the 'whole hog' willingly. Most are either talked into it by profit seeking webdesigners or 'politically correct' forces. Regarding the work on your own site ..... I'm sure it's a case of finding the time rather than finding the ability

Have you seen the work we're doing on the site for tansy? http://www.tansy.webworks-uk.net there isn't much there as yet, but what there is meets with Bobby AAA. Then again, we havn't put in any 'tables' or 'forms' yet

[BungleBob]

Before the penny dropped, the whole issue of accessibility was a pretty scary one for us too. We used to take the "what a waste on my time and money" approach, fearing the whole process must be a nightmare.

However when we delved in and got our feet wet, it turned out to be a very pleasant surprise! It's not as hard as you might think to comply, most of the advice is solid, common sense stuff on web design and the benefits massively outweigh the drawbacks of a small learning curve.

There's lots of info on the web, but these two sites have been particularly useful to us...

A nice clear checklist for accessibility:
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/checklist.cfm

http://webxact.watchfire.com/
This site "checks" your site for compliance and offers copious advice. It's a total must for the design process.

We're busily rebuilding our sites, perhaps we'll post them here once they're finished.

Rich

[craigkillick]

The other positive for Accessible websites is that Search Engines can fully read your web site. Has to be a bonus and worthwhile.

Steer clear of Tables and utilise CSS and that is a great start. Then run your pages through the Validator which also points out what needs changing:

http://validator.w3.org/

[roxytoo]

soodyer is this what you mean?

vischeck.com

[Sue Dyer]

Yes, thanks!! gives some interesting results.....