The UK and enabling Accessibility

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1 e-government Unit The UK and enabling Accessibility Tom Adams Senior Digital Media Consultant e-government Unit EPAN e-government Working Group Lancaster House London Thursday 8 September 2004 Crown 2005

2 eaccessibility is not a silo =... it is horizontal, inclusive and coincides with other best practices: - readability - maintainability - compatibility - interoperability and - our need to reach the widest possible audience

3 e-government Unit eaccessibility what is it? Accessibility is mostly promoted in terms of helping inconvenienced (disabled) users to use the web however while this is the major aspect it is only part of the picture accessibility should be considered as enabling web use for anyone with a web limiting condition such a condition may arise from a disability, but equally from a technical or environmental limitation

4 e-government Unit eaccessibility timeline W3C WAI adopted by UK Government February 2001 s508 adopted by US Government June 2001 W3C WAI recommended by EU March 2002 UK DRC published Code of Practice March 2002 W3C WAI adopted by Germany August 2002 W3C WAI adopted by Canada December 2002 W3C WAI clarified for UK local government June 2003 eaccessibility communication from EU 2005

5 e-government Unit eaccessibility guidelines? Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v1.0 (WCAG10) recommended May 1999 Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines v1.0 (ATAG10) recommended February 2000 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines v1.0 (UAAG10) recommended December 2002

7 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines W3C recommendation December 2002 Is aimed at those with responsibility for developing web browsers, media players, plugins, assistive technologies and other programs that help in retrieving and delivering web content Full text at version 2.0 being worked on

8 Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines W3C recommendation February 2000 Is aimed at the developers of authoring tools by addressing two issues: - To assist software developers in designing and developing tools that generate accessible web content, and - To assist developers in creating tools that are accessible to users with disabilities Full text at version 2.0 being worked on

9 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines There are 14 major guidelines, each of which is divided into a number of subsidiary checkpoints. Each checkpoint has a structure consisting of three priority levels. Websites can claim a given level of accessibility conformance if they meet all of the checkpoints of a given priority, that is: Level A meets Priority 1 (16) Level AA meets Priority 1+2 (30) Level AAA meets all three priorities (19) version 2.0 being worked on

10 UK Government guidelines Guidelines for UK Government websites Illustrated Handbook for web management teams produced by the Cabinet Office is a comprehensive guide to managing a government website and an official interpretation of the WAI. Framework for Local government (June 2003) Quality Framework for UK Government website design Usability issues (July 2003) Online at

12 e-government Unit what are NOT Public Sector guidelines? Section 508 is not! Bobby is not! nor is any currently acceptable that is produced by commercial organisations in the UK or elsewhere, with one exception: The RNIB See it Right which is the only accreditation scheme in the UK

13 UK legislation Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) provision in Part 3 mean that it is unlawful to discriminate against disabled people by refusing them service, providing service on worse terms or providing a lower standard of service also requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments to the way they provide their goods, facilities and services to make them accessible. The owner of a public facing website is a service provider W3C WAI recommendations are not privileged in the Act

14 UK legislation Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) provisions in this Act require that websites (Internet and Intranet) of educational institutions should be applying accessibility practices. Act is owned by Department for Education and Skills.

15 UK legislation Statutory Code Practice Code of Practice: Rights of Access to goods, facilities and services published by the Disability Rights Commission to set out our legal duties placed by Part 3 of the DDA chapters 2 and 5 deal specifically with websites being accessible published March 2002

16 UK Public Sector aspiration work closely with representatives of the disabled community work closely with relative industry representatives irrespective of the User Agents being used irrespective of the Authoring Tools being used for building and maintenance core level of accessibility for a Public Sector website is - build to and sustain at: WCAG10 P1 + P2 = Level AA

17 What is the UK now doing? Disability Rights Commission study The Digital Strategy Major update of the Guidelines for UK Government websites PAS 78 standard Disability Discrimination Act 2005 undertaking eaccessibility research across EU and within the UK

18 what is the UK now doing? Disability Rights Commission formal investigation into web accessibility The Web: access and inclusion for disabled people Published April 2004 This research use dthe W3C WCAG as the standard and tested 1,000 websites manually tested Available online at:

19 what is the UK now doing? Connecting the UK: the Digital Strategy Published by the Prime Minister s Strategy Unit in March 2005 Available online at: al_strategy/report/index.htm

20 what is the UK now doing? Connecting the UK: the Digital Strategy Action 7 (to be reviewed in 2008) requires us to: Improved accessibility to technology for the digitally excluded and ease of use for the disabled

21 what is the UK now doing? The UK Government will: ensure all government websites and online services present no barriers to use for those with disabilities facilitate the development of Best Practice Guidance for accessible website development and an accreditation process raise awareness in private and public sectors Available online at:

22 Major revision of UK Government guidelines Guidelines for UK Government Websites Section 2.4 Building in universal accessibility is our interpretation of the W3C s WCAG10 Summarise of the legal position in the UK Audiences affected by accessibility and what is assistive technology and use of signing on Web W3C WAI as a core requirement detailing the 14 guidelines what? why? and how? Future standards WCAG20

23 revised UK Government guidelines Use of non-w3c technologies use of PDFs use of Flash use of speech enablement Geospatial Information Systems and attachments

24 revised UK Government guidelines writing for the web validation and user testing template for eaccessibility Report accessible software development procurement checklists draft website accessibility statement further reading and resources including free tools

25 revised UK Government guidelines writing for the web validation and user testing template for eaccessibility Report accessible software development procurement checklists draft website accessibility statement further reading and resources including free tools

26 what is the UK now doing? PAS 78 Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites A new standard being developed. To be published by British Standards Institution (BSI) early 2006 sponsored by DRC technical authorship RNIB supported by specialised steering group covering government, academia, usability, software industry, e- commerce and the charity sector

27 e-government Unit current research Conducting the eaccessibility research exercise across the EU public sector repeating this across 2,200 websites within the.gov.uk domain.

28 e-government Unit summary accessibility is NOT about ticking boxes simply meeting guidelines does NOT mean your website is accessible or usable guidelines are intended to help they are not an end in themselves standards and testing are the backbone to eaccessibility

29 when our websites exclude not only has this an impact on a user s ability to access our sites but also on their attitude towards e- Government services

30 e-government Unit Thank you Tom Adams Senior Digital Media Consultant e-government Unit +44 (0)

BSI s BS 8878:2010 Web Accessibility Code of Practice

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT Consultation Response to: BSI s BS 8878:2010 Web Accessibility Code of Practice BCS The Chartered Institute for IT First Floor, Block D North Star House North Star Avenue