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Where standards for good practice for accessible design have been published and accepted these should be followed.
When a website is completed, check the site and information for accessibility by carrying out these simple checks:
The most famous of these standards is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. (WAI -WCAG) Public, private and voluntary sector organisations throughout the world have adopted this as the standard to follow. However, there are others standards, including PAS 78, which covers the commissioning and developing of websites.
There are also an increasing number of standards that cover other technologies, such as the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. (WAI-UAAG 1.0) and developing guidelines such as the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA).
The two key ones for this guidance are PAS 78 and WAI-WCAG 1.0 These primarily cover the design of websites, though the principles that underline PAS 78 could be applied to many other areas such as the development of an interactive voice response (IVR) system.
Compliance with both of these standards is the minimum requirement for anyone designing or commissioning websites.
PAS 78 is primarily for people who commission websites, though it will be of interest to anyone involved in the development cycle of a website. PAS 78 makes extensive reference to WAI-WCAG and should not be seen as a separate framework.
If PAS 78 is followed it should ensure that a website will meet the spirit and the letter of a government department's Disability Equality Duty to provide accessible information.
PAS 78 is a specification published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) explaining to organisations how to commission an accessible website from a design agency. The specification was published in conjunction with the Disability Rights Commission (whose duties and functions were merged into the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2007).
The document includes information on web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as touching on issues relating to Web 2.0 technologies.
One of the crucial sections of the document is on testing. This covers the importance of page validation, to ensure it meets good practice standards, as well as user-testing, including testing with disabled people.
The guide also gives advice on working with external companies and website developers.
WCAG is a standard primarily for web developers but is also of use to people involved with any part of creating a digital format.
It is a requirement that government websites conform as a minimum to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. (WCAG 1.0) Conformance Level “Double-A”.
This is a commonly recognised international benchmark that has been created through the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C), Web Access Initiative.
WCAG 1.0 was created so web developers know exactly how to design sites that are inclusive. To support this, a full list of checkpoints that a site must conform to have been created.
Any new site approved by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Public Engagement and the Delivery of Service must conform to these guidelines from the point of publication.
Continuing standalone sites must achieve this level of accessibility by December 2009. Websites which fail to meet the mandated level of conformance shall be subject to the withdrawal process for '.gov.uk' domain names, as set out in Naming and Registering Websites (TG101).
The only way to find out if a website is accessible is to test it. There are two elements to verifying that a website is accessible: technical accessibility and usable accessibility. Technical accessibility determines whether the site will work with a range of assistive technologies. Usable accessibility determines whether the site will be usable by disabled people.
When developing an accessibility test plan, an appropriate mixture of tools and techniques must be considered. The plan shall include methods for testing both technical and useable accessibility.
Approaches for determining technical accessibility include:
User testing involves recruiting a set of representative users and asking them to try to use a website to achieve a set of representative tasks. User testing should include users with a range of impairments and access preferences, including a mix of beginners and experienced web users using a range of assistive technologies.
It is recommended that user testing is included in all website development projects as it provides the best evidence that a website will be usable by disabled people. The testing process used should conform to BS EN ISO 13407:1999, Human-centred design processes for interactive systems.
User testing relies on creating user profiles that describe the types of people who you want and believe should be able to use the website and then recruiting users who match these profiles.
Fixing an inaccessible website after it has been created can be difficult, costly and may not succeed in providing effective access. The best way to create an accessible website is to make sure that accessibility criteria are included throughout the project life cycle, starting with the procurement or commissioning stage.
The Disability Discrimination Act creates the environment for anticipatory action and this approach is needed when a public sector department or agency buys software or systems for use by employees or the public, as procurement is covered by the Disability Equality Duty.
To help in the process of procuring accessible websites, the British Standards Institute and the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) collaborated to produce a Publicly Available Specification (PAS 78:2006) ‘Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites’.
PAS 78 provides guidance on the steps that should be taken to commission accessible websites, the guidelines and specifications to be adopted, and the role of software tools and user testing within the development life cycle. It is the reference point for good practice in website procurement in the UK and abroad.
PAS 78 suggests that the following principles are followed when commissioning an accessible website:
It is important to remember that websites require attention to accessibility throughout their life cycle — the job is not done as soon as the website is live. Maintenance and upgrades must also include accessibility criteria.
The Office for Disability Issues website is fully accessible.
Visit the British Dyslexia Association and the Royal National Institute for Blind People
For practical tips, visit the top tips section of this guidance.
For other information resources, go to the resources section of this guidance.
Page last reviewed: 11 August 2008