Both Onetel and Kingston Communications were awarded four out of
five stars following its evaluation by automated and manual checks.
Onetel wins in Abilitynet's view because it offers e-commerce,
compared to Kingston's information-only pages.
BT's site was the only one to achieve three stars – which
AbilityNet's regards as the minimum standard required to meet the
needs of visitors with a vision impairment, dyslexia or a physical
problem making mouse use difficult.
Six sites had a two star rating and one site, that of 3,
achieved only a one star rating.
All the sites reviewed were invited to make a public commitment
to accessibility and to date, only Vodafone, Kingston
Communications, Onetel, Telewest and O2 have done so.
The remaining five sites – BT, NTL, Orange, 3 and T Mobile – did
not respond.
Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet's Web Consultancy Manager,
himself blind, said:
"We are delighted with Onetel's score
although not totally surprised since we have been accessibility
advisors to their website provider, Centrica, for some time
a fact we were unaware of until receiving Onetel's statement."
Under the UK's Disability Discrimination Act, new websites
should be accessible and usable for disabled users; and reasonable
steps should be taken to make existing sites accessible and
usable.
The Act has a wide definition of disabled person although not
everyone who suffers from dyslexia will be protected by it.
Nonetheless, new tools are appearing to better accommodate dyslexic
web users. The website of the British Dyslexia
Association this month added the Textic toolbar to its
website.
According to Christopherson: "For the millions of people with a
disability or dyslexia the goods and services provided by the
organisations featured in our report provide a lifeline – a
prerequisite for both independent living and security. Whilst no
site would knowingly impose a 'technological lock-out' on its
disabled visitors, it is clear that there is still much scope for
improvement for many of the sites reviewed in this survey."
He added that many of the special promotions offering online
customers specific packages of goods or services are particularly
inaccessible. "This means that disabled people are disadvantaged in
a very tangible way as they are unable to benefit from the
money-saving deals enjoyed by their 'able-bodied' friends," he
said.
Same old problems
Christopherson and his team encountered the same problems as in
previous studies.
Text size on some sites, particularly for headings and links, is
'hard-coded' so that it cannot be easily enlarged – so vital for
many visitors who have a vision impairment or dyslexia. With some
sites offering small text and others carrying a watermark,
effective access for this group is made very difficult.
The text labels attached to images upon which blind visitors and
text browser users rely for an explanation are often uninformative
or completely absent. Without these spoken labels on graphical
links, navigation for a blind visitor is pure guesswork. "Imagine
trying to drive to your destination where exits at each junction
are left blank," said Christopherson.
Pictures of text are often used instead of actual text. This not
only means that the user cannot modify the text size or colour
contrast – essential for those with a vision impairment or dyslexia
– it also prevents screen reader users from reading the content
when these images are left unlabelled.
Some sites contain adverts and features made up of moving images
that will be distracting for visitors with a cognitive impairment,
or interactive presentations known as 'Flash Movies' which can
present access problems for visitors who cannot use a mouse, are
vision impaired or who use speech output or voice recognition
software.
Some of the sites are reliant on mini programs embedded in the
page called JavaScript. People using older browsers, those with
vision impairments using some special browsers and users whose
organisations disable JavaScript for security reasons, will not be
able to access the sites fully – links to the main sections do not
appear or the search and shopping cart facilities do not operate
fully.
All inaccessible sites exclude a hugely valuable potential
market comprising an estimated 2 million vision impaired users, 1.5
million with cognitive difficulties, a further 3.4 million with
disabilities preventing them from using the standard keyboard,
screen and mouse set-up with ease, around 6 million with dyslexia
and many millions with literacy difficulties, not to mention the
increasing number of elderly 'silver surfers' with failing eyesight
or arthritis.
These potential internet users also represent a spending power
in excess of £120 billion, according to AbilityNet.
Christopherson concluded: "When we visit a website we are
seeking critical functionality – namely speed and efficiency – not
a life-changing experience. Accessible sites are simply easier and
more intuitive to use: they improve productivity for everyone."
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