Overview

Website accessibility is a requirement of the Equality Act 2010. In this briefing, Shoosmiths provides some suggestions for website operators on how to show that their site is accessible.

Although other guidelines exist, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Royal National Institute of Blind People recommend that websites should comply with the criteria specified by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The guidelines contain three levels, level 1 being the minimum recommended level of compliance.

The guidelines are set out as recommendations that must be followed (level 1), should be followed (level 2) or may be followed (level 3).

Recommendations include:

• Provide content in alternative formats; for example a transcript as well as an audio file.

• Be careful about using colour - not everyone can distinguish colours, and some equipment might not show colours clearly.

• Keep content clear - avoid complicated tables, jargon and long sentences which may be difficult for some users to follow.

To read more click ‘view briefing’.