Web accessibility requirements

Web accessibility require 

Web accessibility is another core requirement for websites. It is about allowing all users of a website to interact with it regardless of disabilities they may have, or the web browser or platform they are using to access the site. The visually impaired are the main audience thatdesigning an accessible website can help. However, increased usage of mobile devices also makes consideration of accessibility important.

The following quote shows the importance of accessibility to a visually impaired user who uses a screen-reader which reads out the navigation options and content on a website

For me being online is everything. It’s my hi-fi, it’s my source of income, it’s my supermarket, it’s my telephone. It’s my way in.

(Lynn Holdsworth, screen-reader user, web developer and programmer) Source: 

RNIB Remember, as we explained that many countries now have specific accessibility legislation to which website owners are subject. This is often contained within disability and discrimination acts. In the UK, the relevant act is the Disability and Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995.

Recent amendments to the DDA make it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people in the way in which a company recruits and employs people, provides services or provides education. Providing services is the part of the law that applies to website design. Providing accessible websites is a requirement of Part II of the Disability and Discrimination Act published in 1999 and required by law from 2002.

Guidelines for creating accessible websites are produced by the governments of different countries and non-government organisations such as charities. Internet standards organisations, such as the World Wide Web Consortium, have been active in promoting guidelines for web accessibility through the Website Accessibility Initiative (see www.w3.org/WAI). 

MT his describes common accessibility problems such as:

Images without alternative text; lack of alternative text for imagemap hot-spots; misleading use of structural elements on pages; uncaptioned audio or undescribed video; lack of alternative information for users who cannot access frames or scripts; tables that are difficult to decypher when linearised; or sites with poor colour contrast.

A fuller checklist for accessibility compliance for website design and coding using HTML is available from the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org/WAI/).Localisation A further aspect of customer-centricity for website design is the decision whether to include specific content for particular countries. This is referred to as localisation.

A site may need to support customers from a range of countries with:

● different product needs;

● language differences;

● cultural differences – this approach is also referred to as ‘cultural adaptation’.

Localisation will address all these issues. It may be that products will be similar in different countries and localisation will simply involve converting the website to suit another country. However, in order to be effective this often needs more than translation, since different promotion concepts may be needed for different countries. Note that each company prioritises different countries according to the size of the market, and this priority then governs the amount of work it puts into localisation.

Singh and Pereira (2005) provide an evaluation framework for the level of localisation:

● Standardised websites (not localised). A single site serves all customer segments (domestic and international).

● Semi-localised websites. A single site serves all customers; however, contact information about foreign subsidiaries is available for international customers. Many sites fall into this category.

● Localised websites. Country-specific websites with language translation for international customers, wherever relevant. 3M (www.3m.com) has adapted the websites for many countries to local language versions. It initially focussed on the major websites.

● Highly localised websites. Country specific websites with language translation; they also include other localisation efforts in terms of time, date, postcode, currency formats, etc. Dell (www.dell.com) provides highly localised websites.

● Culturally customised websites. Websites reflecting complete ‘immersion’ in the culture of target customer segments; as such, targeting a particular country may mean providing multiple websites for that country depending on the dominant cultures present.

Durex (www.durex.com) is a good example of a culturally customised website. Deciding on the degree of localisation is a difficult challenge for managers since while it has been established that local preferences are significant, it is often difficult to balance localisation costs against the likely increase or conversion rate through localisation. 

In a survey published in Multilingual (2008), localisation was seen as important with 88 per cent of managers at multinational companies stating that localisation is a key issue and 76 per cent of them saying that it is important specifically for international customer satisfaction. 

Yet over half of these respondents also admitted that they allocate only between 1 per cent and 5 per cent of their overall budget for localisation. An indication of the importance of localisation in different cultures has been completed by Nitish et al. (2006) for the German, Indian and Chinese cultures, assessing localised websites in terms not only of content, but cultural values such as collectivism, individualism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity.

The survey suggests that without cultural adaptation, confidence or flow decreased so resulting in lower purchase intent.