PAS 78: Guide to Good
Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites was commissioned
by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), the independent
statutory body that exists to monitor the effectiveness of
Britain's disability legislation. It is primarily for non-technical
readers who instruct others to build websites. It highlights, among
other things, the need for an accessibility policy and for testing
by people with disabilities, not just software. (You can read more
about the content of PAS 78 in our previous story, How to commission an accessible
website.)
The guide's pedigree is excellent: it is result of many months'
work by highly-respected accessibility experts working under the
auspices of BSI. And the DRC's
sponsorship could bestow an authority on this evidence of best
practice in any court that has to consider whether an
organisation's website complies with the UK's Disability
Discrimination Act.
The price
The 56-page document was published by BSI and initially sold for
£30 plus VAT. That price was the result of negotiation – most BSI
guidance costs more than £100 per copy; but also the subject of
criticism from those who thought it should be free.
The fee is a barrier to raising awareness of an important
document, readers told OUT-LAW in March when PAS 78 was published.
One developer, Jake Liddell of FourHats, pointed out that it
was not just some individuals who could not justify paying £30 for
the guide. Established web companies would buy a copy or two; but
they would be unlikely to distribute copies to potential clients
because it would quickly become too expensive. That would limit the
effectiveness of PAS 78, he argued.
In response to such criticism, the DRC bought a licence from BSI
that allows it to distribute PDF copies of PAS 78 without
charge.
DRC spokeswoman Alyson Rose said that BSI owned the copyright
from the start. "We had to charge. We had no choice in the matter
and we were under pressure to get the document out," she told
OUT-LAW. While the DRC always offers its own guidance free of
charge, Rose pointed out that it did not have the right to give
away the BSI's guidance. Could it have been negotiated from the
start? "Perhaps if we'd had more time," said Rose.
BSI is not a government body; it is a company in the business of
publishing guidance. It has to make a profit. BSI spokesman
Jonathan Mason told OUT-LAW that this is the second time that the
BSI has agreed to a licencing agreement for free distribution – the
last deal being struck with the DTI (for last year's PAS 71,
which encourages the use of a common vocabulary for nanoparticle
technologies).
Traffic figures
The fee paid by the DRC for the licence is confidential but the
document now appears to be finding a much bigger audience.
Since launch on 8th March, 593 copies of PAS 78 have
been sold, according to figures provided by BSI today. It
became free from the DRC's website on 29th June. Within one week,
1,595 copies had been downloaded, according to the
DRC. The total downloads to date are unknown.
The licence is not perpetual: it will last for 15 months (until
late September 2007) or until the end of the life of the DRC,
whichever is the longer. These events are likely to coincide: the
DRC will be dissolved and its functions rolled into a new Commission on Equality and Human
Rights, scheduled to launch in October 2007. Thereafter, it is
up to the BSI to decide what to do. By then, PAS 78 will be close
to its first review deadline of March 2008.
Reaction
RNIB welcomed the
move to distribute PAS 78 free of charge. Julie Howell, RNIB's
Digital Policy Development Manager, said: "RNIB is delighted. Not
only businesses but also those who advocate accessibility –
individual web designers and increasing numbers of disabled people
– are now able to read it and tell others about it."
Howell was the technical author of PAS 78. She wrote the first
draft which was submitted for comment to a Steering Group
(represented by DRC, Abilitynet, BBC, Cabinet Office, IBM,
Tesco.com, University College London and the Usability
Professionals Association) and then a Review Panel (represented by
over 120 others).
"Before it became free, we publicised it as much as possible to
make people aware of it," said Howell. "Now that it's free, more
will be talking about it, recommending it to other people and
hopefully it will lead to better practice in this area.
Next steps
The need for what became PAS 78 was identified in a DRC
report of 2004 based on its accessibility review of 1,000 UK
websites which found 81% of sites failing on automated tests to
reach a minimum standard. There were many other recommendations in
that report, including a call to the Government to raise awareness
of the need for web accessibility and develop a formal
accreditation process. But these calls remain unanswered and the
DRC considers itself powerless to change that. "We can't really do
any more than we have done," said Alyson Rose.
Howell is hopeful that the Government will do more to convey the
message about the need for web accessibility. Reaching big
businesses is now relatively easy, she says; it is much harder to
educate smaller organisations.
Howell points out that the Government has just spent £5 million
promoting
local council websites in a campaign that reminds people where
to check for details of when their bins will be emptied. "Put [web
accessibility] in a radio advert," she suggests. "That's not
difficult. It's a small ask to get a couple of million to promote
this cause."
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