accessibility :: for this site
DJC Design specialises in producing accessible sites for organisations and businesses. We can build accessible sites from scratch, re-engineer existing sites, assist in producing a web accessibility policy or provide an accessibility consultancy to identify your development requirements.
There are legal and ethical reasons for building accessible websites but for many businesses the most important reason is economic - it makes good business sense. An accessible website is easier to use, attracts more visitors, and so raises your profile in a competitive marketplace. Accessibility does not mean a lack of functionality or good design.
Accessible sites will work on a variety of different web browsers and hardware platforms (both old and new). This is important as the number of ways potential customers access the internet rapidly increases. Many people now surf the net with web enabled televisions, mobile phones and personal digital assistants. So having a fully accessible site, means you will reach many more potential customers. Also ensuring your site is accessible builds in a future-proof element, by making it available to new internet devices.
Accessible websites not only reach more people but they are easier to find by robots and spiders compiling information for search engines. Those sites which are designed to be accessible, benefit businesses as they have a better chance of achieving a high position on search engines and directories, thus attracting more potential customers to your site.
In addition, it is increasingly likely that companies will have to ensure accessibility by law under the Disability Discrimination Act 1999. The law makes it clear that web sites should not discrimintate against disabled people. At the moment this element of the Act has not been tested in the UK courts, but there have been a number of high profile cases in other European countries and it is only a matter of time before an organisation in the UK faces a breach of the Act and a potentially large financial penalty.
Accessibile websites are validated by an organisation called W3C and sites like ours ackowledge this by displaying their white and yellow tick logos.