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How accessible is your website?
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Are you turning your clients away?
If a partially-sighted person came into your business with a guide dog and asked you to talk them through your services with a view to making a purchase, would you say no, and send them away? You'd be deeply unpleasant if you did. Yet you may be unwittingly doing exactly that every minute of every day via your website.
Businesses go to great lengths to ensure their premises are easily accessed by those with limited mobility or other disabilities by ensuring doors are widened and ramps are available. Visitors to offices will be directed to parking spaces and escorted to meeting rooms, and help will be given to those who struggle with stairs. But do you afford the same courtesy to people browsing your website?
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) makes it unlawful for businesses to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to make available any service which it provides to members of the public. If that service is the use of a website, then by law the site must be made accessible to those with disabilities.
A good web developer will ensure a site's accessibility as a matter of course. But there are too many developers out there who simply do not know the law and are, whether knowingly or unknowingly, creating websites that discriminate against disabled users.
There are some simple rules to observe when building a site. To check if yours follows them and passes the DDA test, read our special advice guide on website accessibility.
The team at Meantime |
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Fenner's links
You might have heard that Google has just introduced a new feature to its search engine, called Google Instant. You might not have seen it because you have to be logged in to Google to use it. This is because it tailors its results according to your search history, which presents some interesting SEO challenges because it means that now we're not all seeing the same Google. If you want to try it, setting up an account is easy, but you might want to read Charlie Brooker's experience first:
http://meantime.co.uk/AvAwUDIbiG
This week sees the long awaited launch of the public beta of Internet Explorer 9. The fact it's a 'beta' means it's not the finished version, so you might not want to download it just yet. On the other hand, if you have a website or web based software, you should make sure that your site works in what will certainly be a widely used browser. You can see some features here .
http://meantime.co.uk/eCu9UCUFED
and it can be downloaded from here:
http://meantime.co.uk/UjERIjAWA3
Twitter remains very much a 'marmite' application but there's no doubting its rising popularity and the fact that both people and businesses are using it as a resource both for disseminating and acquiring information. Those of you who are converts will be interested in this preview of the new version of the Twitter site.
iPads, iPads, iPads, yeah, yeah, yeah. But even if you've had your fill of this year's 'must have' for the Apple fan-boys (and girls), just take a look at how it's been used here to create amazing holograms. Truly creative.
http://meantime.co.uk/6U4u9uXAru
If you're fortunate enough to have a quiet Friday afternoon, you could give Hunch a try: http://meantime.co.uk/vEnIRa9a6E This site purports to build a profile of you based on your responses to a number of questions, which it then uses to suggest magazines, films, books and activities you might like. I must admit that I found the questions more interesting that the results, which seemed to think I might be into DIY. That's not what I have planned for the weekend!
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If you'd like to comment on any of the content in this newsletter please get in touch - we'd love to know what you think.
From the team at Meantime
Meantime Information Technologies Ltd
w: www.meantime.co.uk
t: 01539 73 77 66
a: 1, Riverside Business Park, Natland Road, Kendal, LA9 7SX
Registered in England and Wales. Company Reg No. 2589414 |
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Latest News |
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| Right Focus site "leads the way in DDA" |
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| Meantime has joined forces with design agency Plain Creative to provide social care agency Right Focus with a fully DDA compliant website. Check the Right Focus site for a great example of DDA compliance, and find out how we did it in our news release. |
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| Is your business accessible? |
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| In the latest of our series of advice guides, we look at the important issue of website accessibility. Find out if your site is compliant and what to do if it isn't in our guide to website accessibility. |
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