Accessibility makes sense

Is your website fully accessible to everyone?

By Mike Butcher Published 18 April 2007 10:56

What happens when there is a terrorist attack or a natural disaster? These days, some people might immediately turn to their 24-hour rolling news channels on television, but many of us would naturally look to the Internet.

However, if you were looking for instructions on how to deal with the disaster, you might find yourself at a loss. Further, what if you had a disability that made some websites a trial to navigate?

A recent global United Nations report has found that only three percent of Web sites are accessible to persons with disabilities.

So the next time you hear your manager belly-ache about the cost of making your site accessible, perhaps its worth shoving those figures under their nose.

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6 comments

Mon, 2007-04-23 23:58 — Jonty Grimbergen (not verified)

@anon. I can only hope that the "content" of your website isn't "essential" to someone with a disability, then. And I hope you never find yourself in a position where you need to use an accessible website yourself.

Tue, 2007-04-24 14:10 — anon (not verified)

Jonty, whilst I appreciate what you say the simple point is that many of us do not have limitless resources, if I can spend the limited time, and finances available to me on helping the 99.9996% then I'm sorry but I see this as a better use of my time.

Thu, 2007-04-26 01:55 — paul canning (not verified)

\"99.9996%\"

oh how to live in such blissful ignorance of my own, very likely disability! that\'s the truth matey, most of us will be and a lot more temporarily. what is your secret to blissful ignorance I wonder?

you are obviously stuck in the idea: no white cane= no disability. well blindness alone is more than 0.0004% of people - it is You dear Anon, who is actually the blind person here. disability is all around you.

you\'re also over complicating it. talk to someone disabled and do *something as a result.

i.e. maybe \'text only\' wasn\'t as useful as you thought/presumed. tesco used to do that and now don\'t.

Fri, 2007-04-27 13:20 — Colin P (not verified)

well I work very hard at keeping a websiter that I run up to date (and funded) I'm affraid that any page thet gets as few hits as that would be dropped!

Fri, 2007-04-20 17:17 — anon (not verified)

well, I spent a lot of time and effort producing a 'text only' version of my website (the main page being too duficult to make fully accesable as it is very media heavy)

And why??? well less than 0.0004% of the last 250,000 users used that page (and I think that one hit may have been me checking it was up and running!)

Prefer not to say (see comments why!)'s picture

Wed, 2007-05-02 10:48 — Prefer not to say (see comments why!) (not verified)

For over two years I ran a successful 'self help' website for sufferers of a medical condition.

We were doing well, good feedback, hundreds of happy users etc. But we felt that we needed to look at accessibility, and asked one of the better know charities working in this area to look at what we were doing.

THIS WAS A BIG MISTAKE DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO DO SO.

We were hounded out of existence because we couldn’t get the level of accessibility that they wanted. We got to the stage where the two of us that maintained the site were pulling our hair out trying to meet their demands (we were spending ALL our time on this rather than maintaining the site) In the end we had to accept that our web building software simply could not provide what they demanded (and I do mean demanded – we were getting up to 20 emails per day from them, and their ‘supporters’ asking for different changes)

To replace our software was not an option (both financially and technically, we were just individuals trying to help people, not professionals with lots of experience and funding.

So the bottom-line? Our users have lost out big time, because we thought we were doing the right thing, so if you have a web site – keep your head down, and whatever you do don’t go looking for help from the accessability police.