WE ALL NEED TO BE WELL ADJUSTED

On Friday 5th May we launched the Well Adjusted Campaign, a unique event that aims to make the world a more accessible place for the 20 percent of the UK population who cannot use the internet because of their visual impairments...

By Sally Hayward, Founder of the Well Adjusted Campaign

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On Friday 5th May we launched the Well Adjusted Campaign, a unique event that aims to make the world a more accessible place for the 20 percent of the UK population who cannot use the internet because of their visual impairments.

Twenty percent of the population adds up to 60 million people, which may surprise you. And around half of these people are so severely hampered with communication difficulties, typically in the form of acute dyslexia, that they can’t experience what it’s like to surf the web or send an email.

And yet the world wide web is something the rest of us take for granted. It’s everywhere, a vital component of any organization’s marketing strategy and a source of information for the rest of us. But what is being done to accommodate those who are excluded because of their visual disabilities?

Not a lot.

Currently the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) makes it unlawful for a provider of services to make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of a service, or to provide them with a lesser standard of services. This applies to communication media, such as the web and any printed material.

80% of UK sites deemed inaccessible

However, to say that the law is being ignored in this area would be a chronic under statement. According to research by the Disability Rights Commission approximately 80 percent of UK websites are inaccessible.

And it’s not just information that is being missed. The Well Adjusted Campaign estimates that £180m billion is lost annually by business because their websites are not fully accessible.

When we have confronted organizations with this information, we have found that they are not resistant to change. Rather, they are not sure what changes they need to make. Providing this guidance is at the heart of our Well Adjusted Campaign.

Draft proposals for change - give your feedback

We have proposed a top 10 list of ‘reasonable adjustments’ – the changes that we believe will enable all stakeholders to produce communication material, whether for a website, a book or a company report, which is accessible to every citizen. It will of course, also have the benefit of complying with the law.

These are draft proposals. We are going to continue to refine and define them, working with all stakeholders including government, business, charities, education and members of the public. We will publish them as a charter of Reasonable Adjustments on 10th October 2006.

It will be our intention to make organizations aware of the virtual barriers they are currently creating, and to make them aware that there are simple steps that can be taken to provide virtual ramps for the imagination, through inclusive communication for all. This is our starter for ten:

The proposed Reasonable Adjustments

No 1. Shape and Size
• Is it big enough and legible?
• Does it meet BDA and RNIB style guidelines?

No 2. Sense
• Is it Plain English?

No 3. Navigation
• Can I find my way around with or without physical or hidden difficulties like dyslexia?
• Is it W3C Approved?

No 4. Design
• Is it great design or does it confuse your stakeholders – have you asked?
• Does it offer BDA colour and contrast options?

No 5. Appearance
• Does it ‘move’ on the page if you have dyslexia or visual stress?
• Do you lose it on the page with distracting messages and extraneous information if you have ADHD or sight issues?

No 6. Sound
• If you can’t read easily or at all can you listen to it?
• Is it speech enabled or does it have a ‘Talk-bar’ audio reader?

No 7. Definition
• Is there access to a dictionary, thesaurus (for those who need alternatives not a definition), jargon guide, acronym guide or do you get ‘oops’ if you are searching for a word on a website?

No 8. Language
• In a world of multiple languages are you making the effort to translate written and aural language for large sections for your customers and staff?
• Does it pass the foreign language translation guidelines? Less than 5% of the Fortune 500 Companies pass by using Spanish alternative text.

No 9. Right to Reply
• What about writing and responding when faced with communication difficulties?
• Can people reply or comment or fill in forms easily?

No 10. The 4 New P’s
• Do you have organisational policies, programmes, practices and research panels for your hidden differences stakeholders?
• Would you like to have the right senior people trained to meet the above Top 10 Reasonable Adjustments?


About The Author:
Sally Hayward is a founder of The Well Adjusted Campaign organised by The British Dyslexia Association, 2080partners and The Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators. For more information and to give feedback on the draft proposals please email sally.hayward@2080partners.com For more information visit http://www.welladjusted.org.uk/