Blog: 'Everyone benefits if we can make the internet more accessible'
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year.
May's theme is communications. This week, Robin Christopherson, Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet discusses making your website user journeys more accessible in sport and fitness.
Robin's blog:
We have just celebrated the 4th Global Accessibility Awareness Day which was launched to encourage the people who shape our digital environment to create accessible websites and applications for disabled people.
It's great that those of us in the know are working hard to improve the accessibility of the digital world for users like me who are a disabled person. Everyone benefits if we can make the internet more accessible and more people need to be aware of how inaccessible websites can be.
One of the things I often come across through my work at AbilityNet is the high proportion of websites that do not provide users with information on the accessibility of their site. In my opinion every site should have an accessibility help page.
Whether you have a fully accessible site or not, an accessibility statement provides a useful stepping stone on a user journey, it offers practical help to your customers, members or supporters and shows them that you have thought about their needs.
As a minimum I recommend that your web accessibility help page includes:
- a statement about the accessibility of the site including items that may be problematic and ways to access alternative content,
- an explanation of any special accessibility features and links to tools such as My Computer My Way
- contact details for feedback with an explicit invitation for disabled users.
Why do you need an accessibility help page?
Of course I want every site on the web to be accessible but you can have an accessibility page even if your site isn't accessible. It's not a legal obligation - more of a way to deliver a better customer or user experience.
Having an accessibility help page doesn't make a site compliant or accessible, but a good accessibility help page can make your site more usable and could encourage people to choose you instead of the competition.
An accessibility page gives you a chance to warn people if you know there are parts of the site with accessibility issues or which have been difficult to adapt. It also gives you a chance to offer alternatives, such as a customer support telephone number.
What to include in your accessibility help page?
1. Complying with the law
Many sites use the accessibility help page to state that they comply with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines, the internationally-accepted minimum standard for web site accessibility. UK law requires AA compliance, so the statement is seen as fulfilling a legal obligation. Even if the site is fully accessible this is helpful, as it reassures the site user that common features should be available to all, but there is more to it than that.
Of course it is best to be working towards compliance, but where you know something on your site isn't fully accessible it is an opportunity to provide alternatives. Imagine how frustrating it is to be trying to use a service which the site owner knows cannot work for you - where it may well be better to describe a ‘work around’ or failing that offer customer support by phone.
Not sure how compliant your site is?
Speak to your web team, or ask an external expert like AbilityNet to conduct a test and provide some suggested wording. Or you can conduct simple single page tests using something like WAVE from WebAim at wave.webaim.org - you just enter a webpage address and discover how many accessibility issues it contains.
Think about your website visitors that may need your help to complete their user journeys. Many will be using a smartphone or tablet instead of a standard browser and desktop PC and most will not know about the ways in which they can adjust their device to suit their needs.
Within the settings they will be able to increase text size, add voice output or increase colour contrast - that may make the difference between sticking to your site or going elsewhere.
That's why I recommend a link to My Computer My Way, a free tool that explains all the accessibility features built into common desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. You can link to it for free, but if you don't want people to leave your site it's also possible to embed that information within your site, branding it to your look and feel.
3. A right to reply
A final part of the jigsaw is to encourage feedback from customers. Make it easy to get in touch so that people choose you instead of your competitors - and listen to what they have to say about their experience.
Of course this is good practice for many other reasons but in terms of accessibility it encourages people to highlight issues they have using your service.
You can also tell people about other ways of using your service, such as email or phone, or even face-to-face alternatives.
For more information on AbilityNet or My Computer My Way, visit: www.abilitynet.org.uk
