Website Accessibility Services

Our Website Accessibility Services

To our UK clients, we at Ontime Websites offer our services to update your website so that it complies with the Disability Discrimination Act, Section 21, and thus all but remove the threat of you being sued. Our update will also make your site accessible to many more disabled people, who would enjoy or benefit from visiting it.

To our USA clients we offer to design and build or update your website to be compliant with the Rehabilitation Act Amendments (Section 508). Our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) confirms this.

We will do this using not only our technical skills but also our business skills to keep the cost down to an absolute minimum because we appreciate the importance to your Organisation of keeping a tight control on expenditure. We won't take up your time and ours with endless meetings and consultations which ultimately someone would have to pay for (probably you). What we will do is assess your website's accessibility and devise the required changes and then consult you before implementing them. If you require a new website we can build you a bespoke solution or you can choose a style from our templates.

Please contact us on 01603-431148 (UK callers) or 44-1603-431148 (USA callers) to receive a free written report detailing how the home page on your website passes or much more likely fails to meet the basic requirements of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C WAI) and thereby puts you in a position where you could be sued if you are UK based. The W3C WAI Guidelines are the internationally recognised guidelines for website accessibility compliance. For USA clients Section 508 adds on a few extra points that we can easily deal with.

For UK clients we will then offer to update your site to 'A' standard for £39 per page plus move your site towards the 'AA' standard. We will also offer an accessibility page which clearly shows that you are catering for people with accessibility issues, from a further £39. If you wish, we will also add the official W3C WAI 'A' standard logo to every page that passes the 14 WAI tests for a further £10 per page. We can also write a report that details the "reasonable adjustments" that we have made in order to make your site accessible. This report is free if you paid for changes to at least 4 pages, otherwise it costs £29.

For our USA clients we will offer to update your site to make it Section 508 compliant at a cost of $73 per page. If you wish we will add on the section 508 compliant logo for $19 per page. If you require a bespoke website to be designed, built and tested this will cost $129 per page and is guaranteed to your satisfaction or we will not accept a cent.

Finally, it should be a medium to longer term goal for your organisation to attain the 'AA' standard, but as things stand at the moment, only a minute percentage of websites attain this standard, but it is worth working towards it, as well as having a statement of intent that you are doing so.

For further details on the UK Law on website access and the importance of the W3C WAI standards read the following sections.

Website Accessibility and the UK Law

UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Section 21

Basically states that:-

• You must make "reasonable adjustments" so that disabled people can make use of your service.

This DDA Act changes the status of Website Accessibility from a business point of view.

The UK DDA comes into force on 1st October1999 in relation to Website Accessibility

The Section of the DDA that covers Website Accessibility comes into effect. This means that websites now have a legal obligation to be accessible.

Code of Practice for Website Accessibility is Published

On 27th May 2002 the Code of Practice relating to Website Accessibility is published.

The DDA increases in Scope

From October 2004 small employers, and the Fire and Police Services are now covered by the Act.

W3C Website Accessibility Guidelines

The 14 W3C Website Accessibility Guidelines

• Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
• Don't rely on colour alone.
• Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
• Clarify natural language usage.
• Create tables that transform gracefully.
• Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
• Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
• Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
• Design for device-independence.
• Use interim solutions.
• Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
• Provide context and orientation information.
• Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
• Ensure that documents are clear and simple.

These guidelines constitute the internationally recognised standard for website accessibility compliance. The basic level of compliance recommended by the W3C is the 'A' Standard. The W3C WAI 'A' Standard logo can be placed on any page that meets all of the Priority 1 guidelines. There are also Priority 2 and Priority 3 guidelines.

Telephone 00356 2158 1320 or
e-mail info@ontimewebsites.com
now to discuss your requirements.