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You are here: Home / Accessibility / Web Accessibility in the UK – True Facts [infographic]

Web Accessibility in the UK – True Facts [infographic]

Posted: November 11, 2016 Updated: January 4, 2018 by Claire Brotherton
28 Comments

Disability affects one in5 in the UK - 12.9m people

I was recently asked in one of my blogging groups to create an infographic. (For my previous attempt at this, see 7 Random Facts about the World Wide Web).

As part of the challenge, and in honour of World Usability Day yesterday, I have chosen to make my infographic on web accessibility.

I’ve taken a UK slant as that’s where I live and where most of my facts have come from.

It’s likely that wherever you are in the world, there will be similar stats.

There is a full text description with links under the infographic.

I hope you enjoy it, and sharing is most welcome!

Web Accessibility in the UK

Web Accessibility in the UK

Disability affects 1 in 5 in the UK – 12.9m people.

(Source: Family Resources Survey 2014-2015)

This includes

  • 11m people with hearing loss
    (Source: About deafness and hearing loss: Statistics)
  • Almost 30% disabled people with dexterity problems
    (Source: Family Resources Survey 2014-2015)
  • 5m adults who struggle to read and write
    (Source:Five MILLION British adults lack basic reading, writing and maths skills, research finds)
  • >2m living with sight loss
    (Source: How many people in the UK have sight loss?)

£212bn – value of the “purple pound”.

(Source: Why Aren’t Businesses Pursuing the £212bn Purple Pound?)

But

1 in 4 disabled adults in the UK have never used the internet.

(Source: Internet users in the UK: 2016)

Why?

  1. Expense – hardware, software & broadband
  2. Lack of skills or training
  3. Need for assistive technology

(Source: Disabled people ‘face online barrier to services’)

And when they do get online…

70% of sites in the UK are inaccessible.

(Source: Press release: Research launched to discover how much revenue UK businesses are losing as disabled customers click away from inaccessible websites.)

Common Accessibility Fails

  1. Bad or missing text alternatives for non-text content
    (Source: Three common accessibility pitfalls for developers: text alternatives)
  2. Poor colour contrast
    (Source: Three common accessibility pitfalls for developers: colour contrast)
  3. Users can’t get the info they need
    (Source: Three common accessibility pitfalls for developers: information and relationships)

Making your site more accessible

Use online testing tools

  • WAVE
  • AChecker
  • Tenon.io

Learn and implement WCAG 2.0 principles

  • Perceivable
  • Operable
  • Understandable
  • Robust

(Source: WCAG 2.0)

Keep informed – web accessibility hashtags

  • #accessibility
  • #a11y
  • #MakeTheWebAccessible – campaign for better web accessibility. Run by People for Research: Make the Web Accessible
  • #NoMoreCraptions
  • #AXSChat – regular Tuesday Twitter chat on accessibility and inclusion. AXSChat website.

Brought to you by A Bright Clear Web.

Related

Category: Accessibility Tags: assistive technology, disability, Twitter, wcag 2.0

About Claire Brotherton

Freelance web designer and front end developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. I love WordPress, code, learning and blogging.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carrie Eddins says

    November 18, 2016 at 9:17 am

    Claire, gosh I really did not know all of this. That’s pretty sad that these people are unable to access the Internet. How great that this post raising awareness of it. Amazing!

    Reply
    • Claire Brotherton says

      November 21, 2016 at 3:18 pm

      Thanks for commenting, Carrie.

      Access really depends on the type of impairment, technology the person has available and the thoughtfulness of web designers & developers to make content available to as many as possible. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Tony says

    December 1, 2016 at 6:57 am

    Excellent and very thorough as always! I should have read before posting my own little article http://itelementaryschool.com/what-is-accessibility/ which comes from the top-down looking at ‘accessibility’ as a more general term and good practice, for all abilities…I will share and add a link.

    Reply
    • Claire Brotherton says

      December 1, 2016 at 10:58 pm

      Thanks Tony, and thanks for the trackback. 🙂

      Reply

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