E-Access Bulletin has reported that a new British Standard for Accessible websites is to be written.
Back in March 2006 ‘PAS 78: a guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites’ was published by the British Standards Institute (BSi). With Julie Howell, formally of RNIB, as Technical Author PAS 78 was originally commissioned by the Disability Rights Commission, now the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
E-Access reported:
The new standard will relate to procurement or development of accessible websites. It will not set out the technical requirements of accessibility, but will outline a process developers can follow to ensure they are taking all the right actions to make their websites and services as inclusive as possible. In an exclusive interview with E-Access Bulletin published in this issue, Julie Howell says BSi would like the standard to be based on PAS78 but she is also keen to widen it to embrace some of the new types of web service such as social networking. Other issues to be revisited from the PAS include the need for user testing of websites by disabled people; and the need for organisations to produce an accessibility policy.
PAS 78 has been a key document in any website owner or developers toolbox and has been widely recognised all over the world. The web has shifted considerably since March 2006 with Web 2.0 and Social Networking taking over the space. It will be great to see a refresh of such a useful resource taking into account all these changes.
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