ITnews is proud to say that every page complies with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), as part its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The site achieves Priority Level 3 level, the most stringent, awarding ITnews the WCAG Triple A rating.
Each page on ITnews is regularly checked for compliance using Bobby from Watchfire. Bobby is a leading accessibility tool which performs more than 90 accessibility checks on each page, measuring readability by screen readers, text equivalents for images, audio and video, colour dependency, and keyboard support.
How This Benefits Disabled Visitors
To illustrate how compliancy has made this site accessible, we have listed representative disabilities below and explained how this site meets the users' needs.
Visual (Blind)
Those using browser readers can, wherever a page loads, control which section they wish to go to first (i.e. jump to main navigation, page navigation, page content, or the links and other information shown on the right of each page). This prevents undesired content being read out on every page visited. All text on all pages is read out without error.
Visual (Impaired)
Those with visual impairments (e.g. myopia) can scale on all pages on the site to suit their own requirement. All text on pages is scaled, including menu items and buttons.
Visual (Colour Blind)
This site supports selection of the desired colour scheme for the site – there is no colour dependency in terms of site content or function. A silver site theme is included for those who would prefer the site without colours, and a black-and-white theme for more profound sufferers.
Hearing
There is no content on this site that cannot be accessed by the deaf or hard of hearing. To put this into context:
If we were to include audio clips we would also provide a text version of the soundtrack.
If we were to include movie clips or video streaming we would also provide time-indexed subtitles.
Speech
This site may be fully accessed using any voice-controlled computer and web browser.
Physical
For those that have difficulty using a mouse, keyboard access is supported by using standard shortcut techniques. This site can be fully navigated without the use of a mouse.
Cognitive
The layout of this site is uniform on all pages. The main (horizontal) menu is structured identically on all pages (i.e. any page can be accessed from anywhere in the site). Additionally, section or page navigation is always included in the panel to the right of each page.
Neurological
There are no animated images or flashing text on this site which could – in extreme cases – cause difficulty for some suffering from particular neurological disorders.
In the UK alone, the disabilities we have listed above accounts for around 8.5m people with annual spending power of £40bn. We think that is rather a large user base! We are committed to total accessibility not simply because it is a legal requirement, but because it is the right and sensible thing to do.
If you experience problems or have any suggestions for improvement, please email us at accessibility@itnews.org.uk.
