Your online services must be accessible to everyone who needs it, otherwise you may be breaking the law if you don't.
The principles are designed to aid those with difficulty with:
- vision - like severely sight impaired (blind), sight impaired (partially sighted) or colour blind people
- hearing - like people who are deaf or hard of hearing
- mobility - like those who find it difficult to use a mouse or keyboard
- thinking and understanding - like people with dyslexia, autism or learning difficulties
When you read deeper into it, there are elements to help low income families and those with limited access to online services/phone credit, those isolated, people with limited technical abilities, language differences, mental diversity, gender diversity and the list just keeps going.
Here is the basics for AA - and you will notice that it is not just all about technical standards, there are lots of elements which have bearing on how content is added, displayed or written.
You also have to conform to A standards to achieve AA
As you provide NHS services, you are obligated to conform to AA standard. Each year an audit has to take place to inform a statement within the site explaining why you do not meet standards. This includes the government and NHS websites, which are good examples of where compliance is taking the look and feel of websites. Whilst it currently does not apply to all website, it is likely that eventually it will.
As it is connected to the Equalities Act you can be prosecuted for not making what they deemed as reasonable measures to comply.
'We don't have the time" or "We don't understand it" are not reasonable excuses.
We believe these standards make more of a difference than people think which is why we are so passionate about making a difference.