Not quite... Some Web Accessibility Gurus are not what they appear to be
While it is undoubtedly a good thing for the web development
and promotion industries to recognise the importance of
accessible web design, we now seem to have entered the
inevitable ‘cashing-in phase’, where
everybody and his brother is suddenly a disability access expert displaying his or her self-proclaimed knowledge of the
guidelines laid down by , the , and .
Unfortunately, a healthy proportion of these new web accessibility
gurus are also quite blatantly playing on their potential
customers' ignorance and paranoia in much the same
way certain less ethical operators in the SEO sector were
carrying on a couple of years back with by trying to bully potential clients into implementing
their particular version of accessible web design.
“We all know what happened to Target.com… Do you want to be the
next ‘Target’ on the hit-list?”
- Yes, the did launch a test case against Target.com
in the Californian courts.
- Yes, they did win, thus setting a legal precedent.
- Yes, this will prompt an ever increasing number of
court cases against online retailers and, in all likelihood,
lead to al change in legislation governing
online disability access right, certainly in the USA and Europe.
However, although all the above statements are basically true, any
implementation of accessible web design should be undertaken
with care and thought, not in a hurry, just because
some self-proclaimed web accessibility guru is trying
to force the issue by spouting half-truths down a phone-line.
If, as an online business owner, you are thinking about
addressing your site’s accessibility issues, my
advice would have to be to seek out an established operator
in the field and, more importantly, one whose company
employs or preferably is owned by those most closely concerned
with the topic of accessible web design; the disabled
web users themselves.
Why have disability access tests?
Occasionally I get asked why, in the face of the recent
publicity had by WebXact and others, there is even a need
to trouble disabled web users with accessibility tests
when online tools are available to check a web site’s
compliance automatically?
The simple answer to this question is that the currently
available means of automatic compliance testing are only
able to verify a relatively small (albeit important) percentage
of currently recommended standards. You can find out more about in page two of this article. Please |
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