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Accessibility Standards and Guidelines
What Standards Are There?
There are no national or international standards for website accessibility. The nearest there is to a standard is the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These are universally recognised and at Test Partners we have considerable experience of working with them.
W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Version 1.0 of the guidelines was released in 1999 and contains 65 technical checkpoints that are divided into three Priority levels. This document is the primary reference for designers and testers and will shortly be updated to version 2.0.
 http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/checkpoint-list.html
PAS78
In March 2006 the British Standards Institution (BSI) launched PAS78, a Publicly Available Specification intended to provide guidance in the commissioning and maintainance of websites. This does not have the status of an ISO standard but is supported by organisations such as the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and the Government.
http://www.bsi-global.com/PAS78/
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)
The Disability Discrimination Act came into law in 1995, and although it was phased in over many years all sections relating to website accessibility are now in force. The Act is careful not to be technology-specific and it also avoids specifying a technical standard for compliance.
The Act requires service providers (which includes websites) to take reasonable measures to ensure that their service is accessible to people with disabilities. Such measures will vary from case to case depending on factors such as the cost and difficulty of making the changes, the number of people who would benefit and the resources available to make the changes. There may also be mitigating factors such as the possibility of providing the service by other means.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/1995050.htm
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