Making websites more accessible

A new service is hiring disabled people to help companies test websites for accessibility.

Launched by a new company called Usability Exchange, the service puts suggestions from the British Standards Institute (BSI) to involve disabled people in testing websites into practice.

The standards body has recently published new guidelines to help people design websites. But it also said those responsible for websites need to carry out practical tests - preferably with disabled people - to ensure their sites are usable and accessible.

Research published by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) in 2004 that showed that testing with disabled users may uncover nearly half as many accessibility problems again as testing with software alone, backs this up.

The end result is companies will know that the sites they are developing don't fall foul of the Disability Rights act.

This law made it a legal requirement for companies to take reasonable steps to ensure their websites are accessible to people with disabilities. Recent reports suggest the accessibility of many public and private sector web sites falls short of standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

These were set up to develop a common standard which would make websites usable across the board for all forms of disability.