Top UK Web Sites Ignore Accessibility for Disabled People

The majority of the UK's leading web sites are guilty of contravening legislation already in place requiring that organisations provide accessible online services to disabled people. This is the key finding of the Web Accessibility Study 2004 by web testing specialist SciVisum, which examined over 200 web sites on basic web site accessibility.

Overall, 79% of the leading UK web sites tested failed basic compliance checkpoints. Worryingly, 100% of travel and financial service web sites failed what is classified as the lowest level of compliance and high street retailers and utilities all reached failure rates of greater than 90%. The best performers were Local Government, with 40% of sites failing, closely followed by Central Government and high street banks and building societies.

It is not only a legal requirement and a social responsibility, but also those organisations that are failing to ensure accessibility are slamming the door in the face of a highly receptive on-line market. There are an estimated 1.7 million blind and partially sighted people in the UK alone, not to mention an aging population. Over 20% of elderly people shop online, many with deteriorating eyesight.

The most common flaw identified was failure to provide equivalent text for visual content, which was the greatest error occurring on 68% of sites.

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