why make accessible sites?

Whether you are involved in a commercial venture or are a non-profit organisation you have a message, and getting that message out to the widest possible audience is one of the most important reasons for having a web site. The disability report of 2002, compiled by the Central Statistics Offices, places the number of people with a disability at 323,707. This is just over 8% of the population. Would your company ignore these customers if they came to your offices? Why then ignore them when they come to your digital office?

Many of the things which "normal" users of the Internet take for granted are, for one reason or another, unavailable or unusable to certain groups of people. We at ilikecake strive to correct this. Our aim is that all of our websites should provide a service to all.

Many companies spend huge amounts of money trying to get their websites to a higher ranking in google and other search engines. The primary reason?

• more viewers =
• more people who see the message =
• more sales, members or influenced people.

What we at ilikecake have found is that many of the features that google rates highly when deciding search engine ranking, are the same as those features which we include when making web sites accessible.

By having an accessible site, you will have a higher ranked site!

Since Ireland passed the Equal Status Act in 2000 all people selling goods or providing services, providers of accommodation and education must do all that is reasonable to accommodate the needs of a person with a disability by providing special treatment or facilities in circumstances where without these, it would be impossible or difficult to avail of the goods or services offered.

Some results of this have been the beeping traffic lights for blind people and the manditory inclusion of wheelchair access to all public buildings, offices etc. Since your company web site is now seen as just another access point to your business it is now necessary to make this just as accessible. Companies who ignore this run the risk of possible litigation, as has happened in other countries. The most well known case is that of Bruce Lyndsay Maguire, blind since birth, of Australia, who successfully sued SOGOC, the Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee, because he was unable to access the sports results on their website using his screen reader.

In a recent study carried out by ilikecake which has followed on from the work of Dr Barry McMullin of Dublin City University, the number of websites which have now reached conformance level A or greater accessibility in Ireland since 2002, has increased fivefold. Overall there has been an increase in the amount of websites which are reaching all the levels of accessibility. This research was carried out by Vivienne Trulock B.Sc., as part of her ongoing masters for Napier University in Edinburgh and will soon be available here.