You may have heard the word "accessibility" being used about websites, but what does it mean? And why is it important?

What does accessibility mean?
Put simply, working to make our website as accessible as possible means that the greatest number of people will be able to view it and use our services. In a similar way that having a shop with steps is difficult for those with mobility problems, sometimes websites inadvertently put similar barriers in the way that stop people using them.

Why is accessibility important?
If we didn't make a real effort to build an accessible website, we might exclude some people. We want as many people as possible to be able to use the information.
Secondly, we also have a legal obligation. The Disabilities Discrimination Act makes it clear that people with disabilities should have equal access to products and services.

How do we measure our website accessibility?
The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines split accessibility issues into three categories:
'A' - These are the most important barriers to people being able to use the website. Without implementing the 'A' guidelines, sites will almost certainly prevent visitors from using some or all of their functionality.
'AA' - These are guidelines that increase the ease with which users can access the website.
'AAA' - These are the set of guidelines that should ensure that the website is accessible to as many users as possible.
If a website states that it complies with the W3C-WAI AA (Double A) guidelines, this means that it complies with all the 'A' and all the 'AA' guidelines.
It can take a long time to go through and check every single page so we use software to help us check. Watchfire Bobby carries out as many automatic checks as it can to see whether the website complies with the W3C-WAI guidelines. It also highlights where manual checks are needed to confirm compliance. Once these have been carried out, the software gives the site a rating. You will often also see a site stating that it is 'AAA Bobby Approved'. This means that the software has checked the website across all the W3C-WAI guidelines at 'A', 'AA' and 'AAA' levels and found no errors.

What can you do to help us?
We've tried to build our website to comply with as many accessibility guidelines as possible. But it doesn't really matter how many checks and pieces of software we use, how accessible our site really is can only be found out by our end-users. That's you!
We're also aware that it our website must be easy to use and move around in.
So we'd therefore love to hear from anyone who:
- has found ways in which our site is hard to use
- has found that they are unable to use some or all the features
- knows of any way we can make our site more accessible
If you would like to let us know, please contact us.

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