Initially the title of this blog post was “Is your website accessible?” but we changed it in favour of a more sensational and click bait style title, as it is actually true. It is estimated that less than a third of websites meet accessibility requirements as set out in the The Equality Act (2010).

What is accessibility?

Put simply, accessibility is making your product, service, media etc available to all. This may be regardless of ability such as sight issues, fine motor skills or even technology used be the issue temporary or permanent.

Regarding your website, The Equality Act (2010) makes it a legal requirement to ensure that it is accessible. Website accessibility is measured using the standard for web accessibility, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

WCAG have defined the requirements in to four principles;

• Perceivable: All users should be able to accurately see and read your website content. That means content must not exclude people with vision loss, hearing loss and other disabilities.
• Operable: Website content should be responsive and simple to navigate for all users, for example, using keyboard only commands to navigate a website rather than a mouse.
• Understandable: Website interfaces and information should be organised in a way that makes them easy to use, predictable to navigate and contain language that is understandable to all users.
• Robust: Websites should be compatible wide a wide range of technology, including assistive technology tools that are commonly used by users with disabilities.

These are then split further in to three levels of accessibility, A, AA and AAA with A being the easiest to achieve and AAA being the hardest.

Public Sector Website Accessibility

Websites of the public sector have to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA and must have an accessibility statement clearly available highlighting how they meet this level, or if they fail in any areas, explaining the reason for non compliance.

Private Sector Website Accessibility

Whilst private sector websites do not have to comply with a set standard, they do have to comply according to The Equality Act (2010).

It also makes good business sense for your website to be accessible, there are 14.1 million registered disabled people living in the UK. This figure focusses on disability only, accessibility should also focus on technology used, such as desktop or mobile and web browsers such as Chrome or Safari. Making you website work perfectly for all users will allow everyone to view your content properly.

How to check whether your website is accessible

You were waiting for this part and it comes as no surprise, squarechilli offer website accessibility services. We perform an initial free of charge basic audit that uses a combination of automated tools and manual digging. This initial audit will provide a basic insight of how accessible your website is.

We can then go on to fully audit the website, or just certain sections to produce a full report of your successes and failings.

You are free to work through this report yourself or we can make changes to your website to achieve accessibility.

Another service we provide is around the creation of your accessibility statement. Your accessibility statement should explain how you meet each area of accessibility as set out in the standard you wish to achieve.

If you have any questions or would like us to provide the initial free accessibility audit, contact us here.