How accessible is your website?

According to recent estimates, there are 650 million people with disabilities across the globe. In the U.K. alone, the combined spending power of the disabled population is estimated to be around £80 billion (US$116 billion), and if online retailers want a cut of this spend, they need to ensure their websites are accessible.

While ramps, parking spaces, Braille signage and designated toilet facilities are all an expected part of shopping at the mall, it seems that making life easier for online shoppers with disabilities isn’t getting quite as much attention. That’s despite over half of disabled Brits having access to the Internet.

A recent report (.pdf) from Webcredible found that, in the U.K. at least, there is still room for improvement, despite the average accessibility score rising from 2007’s 57% to 62% last year. Of the 19 top British online retailers profiled, John Lewis came out on top with 74% followed by Boots (72%) and Argos (71%).

However, Webcredible found that some businesses were inconsistent with their efforts and sloppy with their implementation. “Generally sites are improving though and there are far fewer now that are risking a vast amount of lost revenue and legal action due to inaccessible websites,” concludes the report. “However, these retailers as a whole still need to improve. There were 5 guidelines where the average score came in at less than 2.5 out of 5, including embedding text within images, and providing focus states for links and skip links.”

In order to approach site accessibility, online retailers need to understand how disabled people use the Internet, and what they can do to make their sites more accessible. Here are a few of the more common disabilities you need to consider.

Partially-sighted

Many partially-sighted online users need to enlarge text on websites. Some use screen magnifiers. Website owners need to be aware of how enlarging the text effects legibility and site use, along with the effect it has on text embedded in graphics.

Blind

Screen readers are used by those with blindness or extremely poor sight. The technology sifts through HTML code and deciphers what needs to be read aloud. Some blind users, in particular those that are deaf/blind, might use a refreshable Braille display machine which allows users to read the content.

Colorblindness

One in 12 men, and one in 200 women, has some form of color blindness. This relatively common condition can make distinguishing red from green particularly hard, so try to avoid using the two colors together. For example, highlighting mandatory fields on forms using red text may not be obvious to those with colorblindness, consider using icons instead.

Deafness

While the Internet isn’t such a minefield for those who have good sight but are deaf or hard of hearing, the increasing use of audio and video is creating barriers for them. If your site content is heavy on audio features, make transcripts available, or include subtitles.

Epilepsy

An often over-looked disability by web developers, epilepsy is coming to the fore as a concern as Internet content increasingly includes video and rich-media advertising. Many epileptic users must be careful to avoid seeing flickering between 2 and 55 Hz. Good practice, according to W3C, is to provide users with a way to freeze any flashing and flickering page elements.

Topics: Accessibility, Design, Flash, Graphics, Web Development