What you see is NOT what you get!  

Standards are important

When it comes to websites, there are 2 sets of coding standards that should be followed: . One is to do with Coding Standards and one is to do with Accessibility. Both are extremely important to Google. Accessibility is especially important to every publicly-funded body in light of Government guidelines, stipulating that their websites must meet, or at least aim to meet, these standards. 

We have been creating beautifully-designed (and fully accessible) websites for 14 years and we ensure that every website has no coding or accessibility errors when launched. It is why were are called Access by Design. 

We don’t expect other web designers to do the same, none of them claim to be experts in this field and therefore we do not expect them to meet the same standards that we choose to set for ourselves. 

A shocking discovery

However, when another web design company claims to also create accessible websites and makes that their number one selling point, you would expect their websites to achieve the same standards. I cam across this company yesterday and had a quick look at their portfolio. 

Very few websites are perfect and errors creep in over time but as long as you have fewer than 10 errors, I certainly would not see it as an issue. I looked at the first website on their portfolio, expecting to see no more than a few accessibility errors on it.  

There were 104 on the Home Page. 

Yes, that’s right. 104. I have never seen as many accessibility errors as this in all the years I have been appraising websites. This is from a company that claims to specialise in accessible websites! 

We don’t live in a perfect world but I hoped we perhaps lived in an honest one, especially with something as important as accessibility for disabled people. 

If you would like to know more about Accessibility and your own website, do give us a call on 01243 776399 anytime.