Why develop a accessible web site.
When an organisation or company starts to develop a web site, one of the first questions that needs to be considered is what is the audience are we targeting. You need to understand what it is that your web site is trying to achieve for you and this should become your projects' mission statement.
There are solid business reasons for ensuring that your web site meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Briefly these are:-
The Australian Government and all State Governments have legislation regarding Web Accessibility. The Australian Government, introduced the legislation titled Disabilities Discrimination Act (DDA) 1992, which is administered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC). The Attorney General's Department is the Ministry responsible for this legislation.
While many people are aware of the Bruce Maguire v SOCOG court case, whereby SOCOG was fined by HREOC the sum of AUD20,000.00, what is not well known, is that the legal fees incurred by IBM, the Sydney Olympics web site developer, in defending this action was approximately AUD500,000.00
For more information, please use the Australian Government and States Legal Links. Please note, that these links will open a new web site page.
2. Social or Corporate responsibilities.
This concerns those internet users with disabilities, those with digital divide issues, the older population, people with low literacy, those with low bandwidth, older internet technologies as well as new or infrequent internet users.
The internet also allows larger corporations/organisations to keep their stockholders and other interested parties informed, therefore meeting their Corporate information requirements.
In the 2003 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) document - Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, stated that there were one in five people in Australia (3,958,300 or 20.0%) had a reported disability. This document it defined disability as "Disability was defined as any limitation, restriction or impairment, which has lasted, or likely to last, for at least six months and restricts everyday activities."
These figures are comparable to those in other countries such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
3. Technology Savings and Advantages
This looks at interoperability, reduction of maintenance and development time of your site, reducing server loads and preparing for future and advanced web technologies. This also requires development to use coding standards - html and CSS etc., as they fit into and with accessibility development.
4. Financial Savings and Cost Benefits
This is area some would call the most important section.
There are increased cost benefits, both direct and indirect, although these may not be immediately obvious to all. These are achieved through:-
- increased web site use and in some cases increased sales if you are involved in e-commerce
- reducing the number of support staff required to maintain the web site
- reduces the numbers of multiple versions of the site
- reduces the risk of litigation if the web site was not compliant to the WCAG
- and can also reduce translation costs in supplying information displayed on your web site into other languages.
More Information?
For more information on developing a Business Case for developing a we would suggest that you look at the W3C Web site document - Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization. Selecting this link will open a new page.
