Web Standards and Accessibility

Just as you would not expect to spend a great amount of money on — for example — a television that does not adhere to the manufacturing standards of your country, your organisation should not buy website work that does not adhere to the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) web standards.

These standards have been developed, tested and honed by Internet experts and users over the course of many years to create the basis for stable, forwards-compatible web sites. Web standards include usability and web accessibility.

DistinctiveWeb builds sites that meet the W3C standards and the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0.

Benefits

Benefits to your organisation include:

• Reaching the largest number of potential customers and users possible, including those using mobile technology, those using limited technology and those with disabilites;
• Future-proofing for your website: websites will be easily (therefore relatively cheaply) updated, and they will work across browsers and operating systems;
• Reduced bandwidth costs: smaller file sizes mean that sites — particularly large sites with large amounts of traffic — operate with considerably reduced costs; and
• Guarding against litigation: web standards and accessibility are legal requirements for Government agencies and, increasingly, lawsuits in both Australia and the U.S.A. are proving that discrimination on the internet is costly.

Work carried out by DistinctiveWeb's owner/manager to ensure that the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management's (CALM) website NatureBase website complied with accessibility guidelines resulted in a Commendation (effectively second place) at the Western Australian 2003 Accessible Communities Awards in the Large State Government category.

Have you had customer feedback stating that your web site is hard to use or that the information sought is difficult to find?

DistinctiveWeb can conduct Accessibility and Usability audits on your web site, and ensure your customers are getting what they need when they visit your organisation's online presence. Ask us how.