Web Accessibility and the Role of Content Management
Recent guidance from the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has begun to create more awareness and a much needed sense of urgency. Yet, demand for the experience and skills required to effectively implement changes to design and content is likely to be at a premium, as effective accessibility is much more than just window dressing.
Site owners should make use of the latest technologies to make their site more accessible and consider the varying needs of disabled Web users: some may use assistive technologies such as speech and braille output whereas others simply require font magnification in order to navigate the site more easily. However, these multiple needs should all be considered to make a Web site fully accessible.
Organisations also need to realise that their access obligations are permanent, so rather than opting for a one-off accessibility ‘makeover’, they need to adopt a fresh approach to content management. From a business point of view, proper accessibility fully opens up a company’s products and services to the disabled market, which is estimated to have an enormous collective spending power of some £80bn per annum[1].
Currently, the majority of Web sites suffer from a range of accessibility shortcomings, both practical and technical. Despite the Internet being designed from the beginning to be accessible, most Web development has ignored the need to generate code that complies with accessibility guidance. Added to this, contemporary Web sites are very heavily influenced by designers who favour commercially attractive visuals ahead of other considerations such as the needs of disabled users.
From a technology perspective, a lack of authoring tools to generate Web pages that comply with accessibility standards has not helped organisations make progress, even when they have been interested in doing so. Until recently the guidance that has been available has been poorly understood, doing little to motivate or assist.
A major barrier to change has been the concern that embracing a Web development policy that delivers accessibility is going to be expensive. In reality, the major investment is actually more educational than the financial considerations of buying the right technology to support accessibility. Creating an accessible Web site is not where the challenge lies – maintenance and updates are the real issue and are likely to be where site owners fall down over the longer term. This is particularly relevant for organisations with very dynamic Web sites that are likely to change or be updated on a regular basis. A one-off approach to accessibility could well provide sufficient functionality in the short term, but this will quickly degrade as changes are made and content is added or removed.
For larger businesses with complex and wide reaching Web sites, the more content which exists the bigger the challenge in making everything accessible (from the navigation to the content). The biggest issue is figuring out how to do this in a fast and economical way. Enterprise Content Management tools, and especially Web Content Management, are helpful in this.
Once a business has made changes to its Web site, it should be in a position to seek certification to recognise that the relevant methods have been followed and the published Web sites comply with certain accessibility standards.
In order to maintain a high level of accessibility into the future, organisations should select the standards and methods that best comply with their own situation, but also monitor and check what others are doing to achieve the highest standards in accessibility.
[1] Source: BBC Online