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Top ten reasons to build accessible web sites

We make our web sites as accessible as possible by employing certain techniques in our build standards. We use XHTML and CSS to help make this happen. “That’s all very well” I hear you say, but why should I bother?

The benefits of accessibility are much wider than you might think. We have put together our top ten reasons why we think accessible web sites are the way forward and why you should care:

1. Reach more people

One in seven people in the UK have some form of disability. Make your site accessible and they can use it too. If you were a shopkeeper would you stop one in seven customers from coming through the door?

If your site is not accessible you make it very difficult for people to use your site via speech-based browsers or those that don’t navigate using the usual mouse/click method.

Making your site accessible opens it up to a much wider audience. You’ll be amazed how many sites don’t do this – you can be in the accessible minority and experience the business benefits from this.

2. Stay legal

Whilst there is not any case law yet, it is likely the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (also know as the DDA) does apply to websites as well as the physical world.

The act not only prohibits discriminatory behaviour but also requires positive action to overcome the physical and communication barriers that impede disabled people’s access to products and services.

If your site is not accessible it’s likely it will fall foul of the DDA 1994 and you could be open to legal action.

3. Get there quicker

Accessible web pages built using XHTML and CSS download faster. Used correctly, the separation between content and presentation often leads to less HTML code. Less code means faster page loads.

This is a real bonus for people using dial-up connections and means they are likely to spend longer on your site than they would if they had to wait.

4. Better search engine rankings

We have found that search engines like XHTML and CSS accessible pages. When we redesigned our site we experienced a real improvement in rankings and our experience has been borne out on our clients’ sites too.

This happens because search engines can read and index the site content more easily as there is less code for them to ignore. Try viewing the source of this page (on Internet Explorer use the View menu then select Source). You can make sense of it because it’s simple – then try on a non-accessible page. Bet you can’t make much sense of that – search engines find much the same thing.

5. Be seen everywhere

Increasingly people are accessing the web from a wider variety of devices and using a number of different web browsers.

An accessible XHTML and CSS website can be easily read by most people, whether they are using a PC, Mac, PDA or digital television.

Our sites are built to work on a wide range of modern browsers and devices. It is the way we build them that makes this possible – don’t assume that your current website looks the same to everyone – it probably doesn’t.

6. Make printing easy

How many times have you printed a web page to find the printout is missing the right hand side, or the images don’t seem to show up properly?

With an accessible XHTML and CSS website it is easy and quick to provide a print formatted version of your pages, meaning users can print them out and view them offline whenever they wish.

7. Usability and accessibility – the happy couple

There is much talk about usability and usable websites. We find our clear approach to user-centred design and our focus on accessibility means our sites are naturally usable.

Nevertheless we do know and understand usability. It’s a core facet of our accessible websites and is something we test for when we design and build websites.

8. Avoid the javascript trap

Everyone has javascript, don’t they? Increasingly people are turning off javascript to stop annoying pop-up windows interupting their internet browsing.

This means if your website depends on javascript it won’t work properly. This can affect things like navigation, redirects or drop-down menus. If we have to use javascript we do, but we’ll always provide a graceful alternative. So if your users don’t have javascript turned on they can still do what they want.

9. Be standards compliant

Everyone likes to know how they are doing. Web standards mean we can prove how accessible our sites are. They provide an independent benchmark for our quality coding and design work.

For example, we know our site meets W3C XHTML 1.0 Transitional standards – don’t take our word for it though – check it out now using an independent validation tool.

10. It doesn’t cost more

The last reason why accessibility should be high on your web site shopping list is simple – it doesn’t cost you any extra.

Taking an accessible approach from the start means you can build a highly accessible site without investing extra money. The benefits of an accessible site can be realised by taking an accessibility-focused approach to the design and build for your website from the start.

To understand more about our approach to accessibility, or to find out more, just contact us for a no obligation chat.

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This web site has been built with accessibility in mind and uses valid XHTML and CSS.