FTSE 100 Websites fail Accessibility Requirements

Research conducted by user experience company Nomensa, shows that almost 75% of businesses in the FTSE 100 list of companies fail to meet the minimum requirements for website accessibility. The homepages of each website were measured and evaluated, using manual testing, against the globally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines* (WCAG).

Only 24 sites achieve the minimum level of accessibility – and none go beyond that to double A or triple A standards*. Out of those 24 sites that met some level of accessibility (single A standard*), two companies stood out from the rest: the Daily Mail & General Trust and Xstrata. In fact, these two organisations only failed to reach the next level by one checkpoint.

This one checkpoint was a common point of failure – no means for pages to be expanded or contracted to meet the user's preference. This failure can exclude people that wear glasses or use screen magnification software, and also people using a PDA, internet television or mobile phone.

The five most common website flaws were:
1. Poor quality web code;
2. Poor use of lists;
3. Not using headings and titles properly;
4. Missing alternative text for graphical elements;
5. Using pop-up windows.

Overall, 60 home pages were found to have images that did not come equipped with a text based description, making it impossible for visually impaired people to fully interact with the site.

There were no industry sectors tested that were significantly advanced. However there were some companies within sectors that were notably ahead of their peers. For instance:

* Retail – Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s;
* Financial Services – Alliance and Leicester, Royal and Sun Alliance;
* Services – Yell Group, Rentokill-Initial;
* Pharmaceutical – GlaxoSmithKline.

'Rejecting usability, in favour of a flashy front of house, encourages negative feelings which can end up dismissing the brand entirely. In our experience, those companies that bridge the gap between creative design and user experience, encounter a positive effect on their bottom line', says Simon Norris of Nomensa.

Norris also points out that accessibility and usability issues can be accentuated over devices such as mobile phones, PDAs and laptops that are being used to access the Internet without any enhancing software / hardware.

The home pages of 99 FTSE 100 company websites were measured and evaluated, for the first time manually, against the globally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), over a two week period in April 2006. Of the 47 checkpoints required, only four can be tested automatically with any degree of accuracy. Nomensa used its expert inspectors to carry out the remaining 43 checkpoints manually.

The 99 individual companies who had stock listings on the FTSE 100 were selected from the Financial Times on 8th February 2006. Since this time some websites will have undergone changes, but in order to conform to recognised techniques for conducting accessibility inspections, a definitive timeframe was set.

Associated Link: Nomensa's FTSE reseach

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