Web Accessibility: Putting People and Processes First

Recent work on policy approaches for the provision of accessible Web products has been featured in an article on Web Accessibility: Putting People and Processes First which has been published in the E-Access Bulletin, May 2012.

The article is based on a paper on ‘A Challenge to Web Accessibility Metrics and Guidelines: Putting People and Processes First’ which was presented recently at W4A 2012, the 9th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility. The paper argues that standards such as WCAG assume that accessibility is a function of a digital resource and that organisational accessibility policies should be based on conformance of the Web resource with WCAG accessibility guidelines . However the authors argue that since accessibility is primarily related to the user’s experiences, such approaches are too simplistic for the diverse ways in which web products are used.  The BS8878 Code of Practice provides a more appropriate standard for use by institutions, as this can help to ensure that appropriate policy decisions are made, processes are deployed and users are involved in these processes.