British Standard for accessible websites
Jinfo Blog

4th December 2008

Item

The British Standards Institute has issued new guidance for building and maintaining web content that is accessible for disabled people. Public comment is invited on the draft BS8878 that was published on December 1st. The draft document explains the business case for accessibility, how to allocate responsibilities within an organisation, the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act, how disabled people use web sites, how to choose appropriate technologies, and how to contract with web developers or vendors of content management systems. The draft also includes text which can be used in an organisation's accessibility or procurement statement. BS 8878 was drafted by a cross-industry committee chaired by Julie Howell. Ms Howell was the technical author of the draft's predecessor, PAS 78, "Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites". She believes that BS 8878 is 'better and clearer' than PAS 78 (as a Publicly Available Specification this does not carry the weight of a British Standard) and puts the responsibility on the right people. Ms Howell also believes that, whereas in the past people talked about website functionality, it is more important now to concentrate on ensuring an enjoyable web experience so that the user will want to go back to the site. Comments on the draft are invited until February 1st 2009, with an expected publication date of Summer 2009 for the final Standard. A number of organisations were represented on the committee responsible for the draft: none appears to be from the information community.

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