What is Website Accessibility?
Website Accessibility is simply about making your website more accessible for people with various disabilities. Failure to comply may be deemed as discriminatory and legal proceedings have been known to occur in Australia.
Website Accessibility is often overlooked when building a website, yet it is not only valuable to all users of your website, it is an accepted best practice and fast becoming a web standard. There are guidelines in place to advise of the necessary steps required. These are; the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). There are two versions in place at this time - WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0.
Why is it important?
It may be helpful to think of Website Accessibility like this. Imagine you have just completed construction on a fantastic new 50 storey building – everything is in place, the media and a large excited crowd has assembled for the grand opening. However, as an oversight you forgot to tell the builders that most of your customers are in wheelchairs. Now, the only way into your nice new building is by a grand staircase! Your customers take this to mean you don’t care about them and they immediately leave, never to return. What’s more, they spread the news to all their friends, family and colleagues. Your building is a flop! This story is of course fictional and seems bizarre because we would never discriminate against the disabled by not including them in our building designs - yet, that is exactly what most of us do when we build a new website. This is a sad but familiar story for the disabled community and there is legislation in place to deal with this called the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (215kb – PDF) - so don’t say you didn’t know!
What are the risks of ignoring Website Accessibility?
Whilst there are no automatic or prescribed penalties for non compliance with the Website Accessibility Guidelines, there does exist a legal precedent in Australian law. This means it can happen again. It is not only the financial impact of a court case you should consider, but also the reputation of your organisation could be at stake. If a court case is brought against you and if it were to be made public, your organisation and brand could be forever tarnished as discriminatory. So, non compliance poses some very real monetary risks. Fortunately, for a fraction of what non compliance could cost you, all this can be easily avoided.
Protect your organisation today - with a Website Accessibility Audit
The best way to approach this is to engage a professional company to begin a Website Accessibility Audit as early as possible to clearly understand your current status and possible risks. Once that is completed, it is a matter of following the recommendations in the report to the letter.
Metaweb can help you understand your legal obligations for WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 compliance and offers achievable, cost and time effective solutions. Contact Metaweb today for an obligation free consultation on your website’s accessibility.
