Accessibility standards benefit all
First and foremost Salford City Council is a public service provider and so we have to provide information that is accessible to all sections of our community, regardless of ability.
The Disability Discrimination Act has brought about new rights for disabled people. Employers and service providers must not discriminate against a person for a reason connected with their disability. They must also make reasonable adjustments to the way in which they offer their services. This applies as much to websites as it does to ensure that that wheelchair access to council buildings is possible.
But accessibility is not just about ensuring that disabled people can access information. It is also about ensuring that the wide variety of users and devices can all gain access to information, thereby maximising the potential audience and letting users experience the pages the way they choose to.
An accessible site is one that accommodates the full range of users. Designing for accessibility therefore means accepting that, for online information, there is:
- no standard information user, and,
- no standard device for browsing information
An accessible website does not exclude anybody due to:
- their abilities, or
- the method they choose to access the web
Accessible websites prioritise clear content, structure and ease of navigation over frilly aspects of design, however they also need not be visually unattractive, nor are they prevented from using the latest web technologies, provided that all information is still accessible to users.
The web: access and inclusion for disabled people
The results of a formal investigation by the Disability Rights Commission, published April 2004, showed that more than 80% of websites are difficult for disabled people to use.
WAI Level Double-A conformance achieved
The Government requires that all public sector websites - whether for central or local government - should meet the W3C's guidelines on accessibility to WAI Level Double-A standard.
We believe that this website does conform to the Double-A standard, but recognise that it is very hard for a 20,000+ page website to maintain such compliance. So we choose not to shout about our compliance since it is difficult to be certain that 100% compliance is being maintained!
Through further development of our web services we are striving to improve our compliance and aim to attain the WAI Level Triple-A standard as soon as possible.
See also: Accessibility statement
This page was last updated on 12 May 2009
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