Good practice guide to making websites accessible now published

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has published new guidance on making websites user-friendly for disabled people, to help businesses attract disabled customers and avoid legal claims under the Disability Discrimination Act. The guidance, PAS 78 Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites, developed in collaboration with the Disability Rights Commission, covers areas such as:

• how disabled people use websites;
• defining the accessibility policy for the website;
• web technologies;
• accessibility testing and maintenance; and
• contracting web design and accessibility auditing services.

It gives recommendations for managing the process of upholding existing content-accessibility (W3C) guidelines and specifications, involving disabled people in the development process and using the current software-based compliance-testing tools that can assist with this.

Following the guidance can help show that you have complied with the Disability Discrimination Act, which requires websites to be accessible to and usable by disabled people, if a legal claim is made against you.

Immediate

Copies of the publication are available, in a variety of formats, from BSI (tel: 0208 996 9001 or www.bsonline.bsi-global.com) priced £30