Unintentionally Blank

Phil Nash on the Internet, Web Standards and Accessibility

Quicklink: "Most Websites Failing Disabled"

Dec 06, 2006

by Phil Nash

Congratulations to Tony Blair, the owner of one of the 3 websites to reach the minimum accessibility standards of the WACG in the recent accessibility review by Nomensa commissioned by the UN as part of its International Day of Disabled Persons.

Disappointing

97% of websites tested failed to reach any level of accessibility. 93% of sites did not provide alt attributes for graphics. 98% did not follow industry standards for coding. (more disappointing stats)

Promising

However bad the results are, at least they have been exposed, it has hit the news and was the subject of one of the accessibility presentations at the UN. This sort of global publicity for the inaccessibility of most major websites should hopefully encourage more and more companies to take action. There is no quick solution, but the more pressure to provide one there is, the closer we move towards an internet in which everyone is equally important and therefore equally able to use every site.

Unintentionally Blank is Phil Nash's thoughts on web development from 2006-2008. Any code or opinions may be out of date.