It’s something we’re all aware of, but few people actually devote any time to. Accessibility is one of those words that usually come very far down on the list when we’re designing a website. Yet all you have to do to see why accessibility can be a problem online is close your eyes and try to order a book on Amazon. See what I mean?

Yes, I know, visually impaired website visitors don’t just sit there with their eyes closed, they use all kinds of different tools and software. But all the tools in the world don’t help if the website isn’t set up properly – and very few are. According to the BBC:

“In 2004, the UK’s Disability Rights Commission investigated 1,000 websites. It found that 800 of those sites failed to meet minimum accessibility standards set by the web’s regulatory body, the World Wide Web Consortium.”

I doubt that things have improved since then. In the future, however, they might have to.

Read the article – this could be a good time to move accessibility higher up on your list of priorities.

Designing a more accessible web