Following recent rulings, it is soon to be compulsory for your websites to be accessible to all. This means adhering to certain guidelines regarding how your site is accessed by people of varying disabilities, including blind or with impaired vision or possibly colour blindness & physically disabled perhaps unable to use a mouse.

These enhancements can often be achieved with little or no difference in appearance to the website, with most of the changes made in the code structure, in ways that optimise the information for other devices, eg screen readers, or by adding keyboard controlled navigation which is available throughout the site.

There are different levels of W3C recommendations, and also different methodologies. Airtime is experienced in assessing and updating your website to make it achieve an acceptable level of accessibility.

As all websites are different we can currently only offer assessment and any subsequent work on an ad-hoc basis.

Should you wish to have your website checked over, email sales@airtime.co.uk or call 01254 504420 for an initial consultation.

Some examples of accessible work are Dawson Foodservice Equipment, Linton Brick and R & S Engineering.

Below are some of the labels you may see which 'indicate' that your website has achieved a level of conformity. When correctly used, each will link back to a page which indicates that your page or site has been checked and has passed the relevant guidelines - though there are some arbitrary or personal judgements in applying some of these standards:

Advisory bodies and useful guidelines can be found at the following websites:

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - "Introduction to Web Accessibility - Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging."

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) - General principles of accessible design. "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are part of a series of Web accessibility guidelines published by the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative. They consist of a set of guidelines on making content accessible, primarily for disabled users, but also for all user agents, including highly limited devices, such as mobile phones." (Wikipedia)

BSI PAS78 - Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites (see link below)

Equality & Human Rights Commission - Web Accessibility Guidance