Some blind web users may not have been able to buy tickets for next year’s London Olympics due to the partial inaccessibility of the tickets website, testing by the charity AbilityNet has found.
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The Law School Admissions Council (LASC) in the US has agreed to make its website fully accessible to blind and visually impaired users following legal action by the country’s National Federation of the Blind (NFB).
The NFB filed a lawsuit against LASC in 2009 claiming that the organisation’s website – used by nearly every US law school to accept student applications – violated the California Disabled Persons Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act (a California-based piece of discrimination legislation).
The UK government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published a set of 10 principles for inclusive web design to highlight the importance of building websites that can be used by as wide a range of people as possible and drive forward e-accessibility.
Written as seven principles by Sandi Wassmer for web design company Copious – of which she is managing director – the ‘Ten Principles of Inclusive Web Design’ ( which can be viewed on the DCMS site – bit.ly/mfx9ax – or the Copious site: bit.ly/lzsnOe ) were originally used to encompass and sit alongside existing web-based guidelines and best practice for building accessible and user-centred websites. Wassmer then co-wrote the government’s E-Accessibility Action Plan (available as a PDF here: bit.ly/kEhUsx ) and included the seven principles in the appendices.
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By Jonathan Hassell
Many people struggle with reading text on websites, particularly those with dyslexia, vision impairments, Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD and the multiple minor impairments associated with ageing.
While web browsers do include facilities to help these users such as the ability to change text size or colour or use your own style-sheets, many people are not able to find or use the browser controls to take advantage of them.
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