Benefits of an accessible website - part 2: The business case

The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law, and as such must be made accessible to everyone.

Some organisations are making accessibility improvements to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the accessibility adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care'

There are, however, two very good reasons as to why businesses should start taking these issues seriously:

• An accessible website will make you more money
  

• An accessible website will save you money
  

There are seven explanations for this:

1. Your website will be easier to manage

An accessible website separates the content (the words and images that we see on the screen) and presentation (the way that these words and images are laid out) of each page. Each web page has an HTML document that contains the words and images for that page (the content), and calls up a CSS document that includes the presentation information - this CSS document is shared by all the pages on the website.

To adjust the layout of your website, you only have to make changes in the CSS file, saving considerable time (and therefore money).

2. Your website will be compatible with new browsing technologies

In the near future, the use of PDAs, mobile phones and in-car browsers will all regularly be used to access the Internet. The people making use of these new technologies are generally high-income individuals. In order to reach this lucrative target, you'll need a website that is accessible to these machines. To test your website, try using it with the Wapalizer ( http://www.gelon.net

iExpertAdvisor - FOREX Trading Systems, MetaTrader MQL Expert Advisors and More!