Accessibility

It is vital that websites are accessible to everyone - not only does it make good business sense, but it is also a legal requirement for businesses and organisations to make reasonable adjustments to provide accessible services or information

One of the main goals of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is to make the web accessible to all by promoting technologies that take into account the vast differences in culture, languages, education, ability, material resources, access devices, and physical limitations of users on all continents.

Many users may be operating in contexts very different from our own:

They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse.
They may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow internet connection.
They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are busy or interfered with (e.g. driving to work, working in a loud environment, etc).
They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.

W3C has a set of guidelines, to promote accessibility, which we aim to meet - these are:

Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
Don't rely on colour alone.
Use mark-up and style sheets and do so properly.
Clarify natural language usage.
Create tables that transform gracefully.
Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
Design for device-independence.
Use interim solutions so that assistive technologies and older browsers will operate correctly.
Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
Provide context and orientation to help users understand complex pages or elements.
Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
Ensure that documents are clear and simple.