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Home > Accessibility > Validation and Accessibility?

Validation and Accessibility?

Validation and Accessibility?

In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) does not refer explicitly to website accessibility, but makes it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities. The DDA applies to anyone providing a service; public, private and voluntary sectors. The Code of Practice: Rights of Access – Goods, Facilities, Services and Premises document[8] published by the government’s Disability Rights Commission to accompany the Act does refer explicitly to websites as one of the “services to the public” which should be considered covered by the Act.

Sadly, in web practice there is widespread confusion in web designers and internet agencies between validating to web standards (e.g. WC3 document type) and web accessibility guidleness (e.g.WCAG) with many self proclaimed ‘accessibility’ advisors and ‘automatic’ accessibility checks offering the misleading advice that, if a page validates it is automatically accessible – and if it doesn’t validate it is not accessible.

This mis-information echos the loophole that occurred when the word ‘reasonable’ was applied to physical accessibility requirements (cited in the DDA and Part ‘M’ of the building regulations). With websites, WC3 validation creates a ‘loophole’ where passing validation becomes an excuse to ignore obviously inaccessible web features – from unmarked tables to device dependant ‘eye candy’.

  • Websites should always be built to validate to web standards
  • Websites should always aim to pass Priority 3 accessibility as defined in the WCAG even though this is more than than UK  law asks for
  • Where there is a conflict between validation and web accessibility, web designers should defer to accessibility
  • Where third-party tools are used that make a page invalid or inaccessible, web designers should alert the creators, clearly outlining the accessibility problems and request the problems to be resolved.  This should be done with a donation for the third-parties time.
  • Some needs of disabilities contradict each other. Designer must understand that they ‘cannot please everyone’ – whist still aiming to ‘please everyone.