August 11, 2005
Phone sites fail disabled surfers
In something I must surely be guilty of as well, seven out of 10 telecom company websites fail to meet a basic level of usability for disabled users, says a report into web accessibility. BBC.
"The study by charity AbilityNet is part of its periodic evaluation of the sites of the top 10 companies in a industry. Under the Disability Discrimination Act, companies must ensure that content is accessible to all users.
An estimated 12.5 million people in the UK currently have disabilities which make it hard for them to view websites.
There are many ways in which websites can be inaccessible to disabled people.
Many blind or visually-impaired people, for example, use a screen reader - a piece of software which reads out loud a website. But sites can contain levels of complexity in menus and style information which can make it difficult for these screen readers to pick out important content."
Does anyone know how blogs rate for reading disabilities? Being that they don't have flash and are fairly simple to navigate? I can't seem to find anything relevant in a Google search or Movable Type's plugins directory (my blogging platform). I've sent an e-mail to the BBC's Ouch! Website. Will get back to you on this.
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