Logo Claims about Website Accessibility belie Reality

The presence of an accessibility statement or logo on a website does not necessarily give an accurate picture of that website’s accessibility, according to research conducted by Helen Petrie, Director of Research at London-based user experience consultancy Designed for All.

The research found that out of 500 websites, 40 (8%) had an accessibility statement or logo. However, when 20 of these 40 'accessible' sites were inspected only 6 passed basic accessibility tests. Indeed, 6 other sites were found to be making claims about accessibility conformance beyond what they actually achieved. Only 30% of the 'accessible' sites examined in the research were making accurate claims about accessibility.

'A company’s accessibility statement is a reflection of its values towards disabled people. People’s trust will be affected if a company makes a public statement that is not reflected in how it actually behaves,' suggested Petrie.

'This research does not mean that website owners are purposefully misleading people', says Petrie. 'Difficulties interpreting accessibility guidelines and following best-practices when websites are updated can lead to accessibility problems creeping in. But accessibility statements need to be accurate if organisations are to develop trust with their disabled customers. After all, disabled people have a spending power of £50 billion a year.'

Designed for All suggests an “AAA-Plan” for getting on top of accessibility:
- Assess the accessibility of your website with disabled users
- Align your resources to meet specified targets
- Act comprehensively to meet your targets and maintain them

'Making your website accessible has tremendous benefits to everyone, not just disabled people”, says Petrie. 'Our research shows that an accessible website can be 35% more usable for everyone – that sort of usability gain can really give companies a competitive advantage, especially those who rely on their website as a revenue channel.'

250 UK and international financial websites (e.g. banks, insurance companies, credit card suppliers) and 250 UK-oriented e-commerce websites (e.g. travel, CD/DVD retailers, electronic goods retailers) were sampled. Those sites with accessibility statements or logos were evaluated against the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Version 1).

The full results were presented at the “Accessible Design in the Digital World” conference held in Dundee in August 2005.

Associated Link: Designed for All

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