Website accessibility tests

The whole point of creating and maintaining a website is to publish content to computer users all over the world. Why, then, have a website which is designed in such a way so as to render it inaccessible to a group of over 250 million people?

This is what happens when web designers ignore not only good practice but, in some cases, local laws which require that services must be accessible to visually impaired people. Often, the steps to be taken to ensure full accessibility to content are quite simple. See the useful guidance prepared by the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the UK.

Much can be done with clear fonts and contrasting colour and optional text sizes to render web pages more readable by those with low vision, but the acid test of accessibility is whether all features of a web page can be read and used by a screen reader application which outputs in speech or Braille.

While you may wish to take advantage of a technical accessibility audit from services such as AccessibilityNet, we can provide the acid test by using screen-reading software to access your web pages and reporting problems to you. Remember that accessibility is a basic technical objective but it is actual usability which will be revealed by the screen-reader test.

If you would like to discuss with us how we can help you with a website accessibility test, please contact us.