Accessibility precedent

Written by Gary Hides   

It’s finally happened. A large private retailer has been taken to court due to the poor accessibility of their site. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

Only in America?

If you’re a web site owner, you should really have your web site checked over for basic accessibility needs, not only for legal reasons, but for moral and business reasons too.

The first thing I should probably mention is that this recent court case and ruling was carried out in America. But as we know, what happens over in the US, usually happens in the UK within a matter of a year or two, and with increasing awareness of UK accessibility guidelines, it’s damn near a certainty that a similar court case will happen over on this side of the pond, sooner, rather than later. 

What was wrong?

The web site itself was target.com , a huge retailer for clothes, furniture and more. Even though the web site looks nice and works quite well for the average user, a disabled shopper cannot complete a purchase, due to the following problems:

  • Several actions require the use of a mouse, as keyboard controls don’t work
  • Alt-text is missing from the images; therefore the images are not described to blind users
  • Image maps were inaccessible; this prevents blind users from navigating the site using the image maps
  • Headings were missing that are needed for navigation

These are very basic accessibility requirements, and should be covered as a minimum. 

What’s next?

If you’re a web site owner, you should really have your web site checked over for basic accessibility needs, not only for legal reasons, but for moral and business reasons too. After all, it really does make good business sense to make sure everything you offer as a business, including your web site, is accessible to all. If you’re ready to take accessibility seriously then maybe you should think about going for more than just the basic accessibility criteria. 

For an accessibility check on your web site, contact Castus Design and we’ll happily provide you with frank and honest advice about how accessible your site really is, and what to do going forwards. 

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