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PAS 78 Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites

8th March 2006 by Liam McGee

The BSI’s new PAS 78 ‘Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites’ hits the metaphorical shelves this week. We commented on the draft via the W3C, and it will be interesting to see the final version.

The document covers building an accessible website from commissioning and developing it, through to publishing and maintaining it; the importance of accessibility and how to define it; and the involvement of disabled people in requirements gathering, conceptual design and testing processes.

We’re pleased to see the emphasis given to testing with people with disabilities rather than relying on technical assessments alone. This is something that we encourage all our clients to undertake, and something that we have become very experienced at.

‘Businesses and the Web industry have a responsibility to ensure the Web is barrier free to disabled people,’ says Bert Massie, chairman of the DRC. ‘It also makes good business sense. An accessible website is easier for both disabled and non-disabled people to use and is bound to attract more customers.’

We couldn’t agree more.

PAS 78 costs £30 (+VAT) and can be ordered via www.bsi-global.com/PAS78/index.xalter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, 8th March 2006 at 7:17 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “PAS 78 Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites”

  1. Andy Mabbett says:
    16th Mar 2006 at 11:40 pm

    There is some discussion – at times heated – about the charge for this document (which is not £30, but £30+VAT) at: http://www.accessifyforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=4798

  2. Liam McGee says:
    17th Mar 2006 at 11:17 am

    Thanks Andy — VAT now noted in the main article.

    Communis can take no position on the appropriateness of the cost, although we would note that it’s significantly cheaper than most BSI publications. If cost is an issue, or if it’s just for general interest rather than a need to implement it, it will be available through your local library.

    I note that Bruce Lawson has written up a good general overview of PAS78 over at his personal site.

  3. Jonathan Miller says:
    7th Jul 2006 at 9:16 am

    PAS 78 now free

    I see that PAS 78 can now be obtained for free:

    http://www.drc.org.uk/library/website_accessibility_guidance/pas_78.aspx

    PAS 78 = “Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites”