Accessibility & DDA Review
The easier someone finds the experience of visiting a website, the more likely they are to become both a customer and an advocate.
It has always been our belief that web content be made available to the widest possible audience, and an accessible website not only expands online markets to people with disabilities, it also caters for future browser technologies as well as helping to improve search engine performance.
Improved user experience
A good level of accessibility also improves the efficiency of the time visitors spend on a site, and their ability to complete tasks such as purchasing products.
According to usability guru Jakob Nielson, an accessible site can increase the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% and traffic by 150%.
- Providing clear and consistent navigation – finding information is easier.
- Providing understandable and clear content – helps visitors to stay longer and make return visits.
Disability Discrimination Act
In the United Kingdom, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (commonly known as the DDA), was introduced with the intention of comprehensively tackling the discrimination which many disabled people face.
The final part of the DDA came into force in October 2004, and the accompanying Code of Practice states that websites be designed to cater for disabled users.
- 59 million – The population of the United Kingdom (source: ONS).
- 8.5 million – The number of people with some form of disability in the United Kingdom (source: ONS).
- 2 million – The number of people with sight problems (source: RNIB).
- £40-50 billion – The combined estimated spending power of disabled people (source: Employers' Forum on Disability).
Our Approach
While automated testing tools will check a website for technical compliance, satisfying each requirement is always a judgment call.
In addition to using these tools, we also undertake end-user testing to ensure a website is compatible with a wide range of non-standard browsers, assuring both maximum compliance and that the site can in fact be used by the intended audience.