Even disability organisations fail basic Web site accessibility
Howard Lake | 5 April 2004 | News
Nearly 60% of leading disability Web sites fail basic accessibility standards, according to research by Ethical Media.
Communications agency Ethical Media looked at 50 of the top Web sites published by disability charities and organisations in the UK. The results showed that Web accessibility is still not yet embedded within the sector, with only a handlful of Web sites leading the way with fully accessible features.
Ethical Media’s ‘Disability 50 Accessibility Report’ found that the majority of disability organisations do not address accessibility needs sufficiently in their Web and digital communications.
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The agency benchmarked the selected Web sites against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by global and industry-led standards body W3C. Significantly, 58% failed to achieve a compliance level, which the WCAG state as ‘compulsory.
Head of Digital Communications at Ethical Media, Keith Patton said: “This shows what many people have suspected for some time: that organisations in or supporting the disability sector do not yet adequately consider Web accessibility and usability as a priority in their communications strategies. As a result, significant proportions of users are likely to find it difficult, even impossible, to access information, restricting the flow of communication between any given organisation and its customer base.”
The report was able to point to a few organisations that have addressed these issues in an exemplary manner. These include AbilityNet, Action for Blind People, British Council for Disabled People and the Disability Rights Commission.
The research was carried out between February and March 2004.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.