AbilityNet is lending its support to an innovative campaign called Fix the Web

15/11/2010

National computing and disability charity, AbilityNet, is lending its support to an innovative campaign called Fix the Web which aims to reduce the number of inaccessible websites.

The ‘Fix the Web’ initiative www.fixtheweb.net, launched by Citizens Online, offers the end-user fast ways to report problems that make navigating websites difficult for people not using the standard keyboard, mouse and screen set-up.

There are nearly 11 million registered disabled people in the UK, a further 6 million with dyslexia and millions more have literacy difficulties. With growing numbers of ‘silver surfers’ (some 22% of website traffic), a corresponding increase in conditions associated with old age, like arthritis and failing sight are also to be expected.

Says AbilityNet’s Head of Digital Inclusion, Robin Christopherson: "A raft of legislation already obliges website providers to ensure accessibility (the DDA, DED etc), but the business case for so doing is overwhelming.

Accessible sites deliver a ‘usability bonus’ of around 35% for every visitor (disabled or not) - a factor which translates directly into competitive advantage and productivity. Retailers lamenting hard times are also overlooking the £80 billion spending power of the disabled community."

But 80% of sites are still failing to meet minimum accessibility criteria with typical problems including images with no captions/alt text, ‘hard-coded’ text preventing modification of any kind, use of distracting animations and sites dependent exclusively on mouse-use.

Frustrated surfers are urged to report their problems in any of these ways:

Send a brief email to post@fixtheweb.net with the url and problem
Send a tweet that includes #fixtheweb #fail url problem
Fill out a three-line form: http://fixtheweb.net/node/add/report.

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