SAIF: Making Websites Accessible
Introduction
The Web is now part of the mainstream, along with other digital communication channels (e.g. email, text, electronic documents). This guide aims to help you develop your website to communicate in the most accessible and effective way.
We are not advocating that you should only communicate electronically. There will always be people who prefer more traditional 'off-line' communication methods. Providing alternative formats will help ensure your information remains accessible to a wide range of people with different communication needs.
It makes sense to build accessibility into your website from the start as it is both cheaper and easier than trying to add it later (although of course you can). The best way to achieve this is to adhere to existing good practice. In terms of buiding websites much of that good practice can be found in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the good practice guidelines published by The British Standards Institute.
What this guide covers
This guide provides an introduction to
- what 'accessible web design' means
- what standards and guidelines are available
- how to choose a website designer
- what should be in your tender document
- how to check the accessibility of your website
- where to get further help.