Welcome to Usability Testing.co.uk
This new web resource is being assembled by a group of website usability experts, supplying web usability testing and specialising in disabled usability testing to companies and local authority clients nationwide.
It’s creation is timed to coincide with the issuing (in December 2008) of new internationally agreed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0).
The information assembled here is intended to guide Companies and Public Bodies on how to meet the needs of the disabled in accessing their websites, and in particular how to ensure that in this respect they are compliant with current UK Laws and applicable Official Guidance.
The WCAG changes are particularly important in this respect because most of the compliance criteria refer to WCAG, which thus indirectly achieves in part the force of law.
Although these legal obligations have been in force since 1999, non-compliance is still widespread, indeed almost universal, even in relation to the much less demanding WCAG version 1.0 dating from 1999.
Now that the criteria have been modernised and well-defined, there are signs that more determined enforcement is imminent. Although the obligations on Private Sector websites are quite onerous, it is even more critical for Public and Governmental Organisations, who must achieve compliance at a higher and more difficult level.
The obligations apply equally to new or existing websites, but clearly any new project or major web overhaul which continued to ignore these criteria would be particularly vulnerable to criticism.
Achieving technical adherence to guidelines is itself not the end of the story, however, as the legal obligation goes further, ie to cover the practical outcome in terms of the actual quality of the user experience. The final critical step is therefore fine-tuning of the design as a result of analysing the actual experience of real disabled users. This is the role of disabled usability testing. Not only is this critical to a good outcome, but it is also vital in that the resulting Usability Testing Report provides valuable evidence that the legally necessary “reasonable steps” have been taken and documented.
Use the links below or on the right to explore further.
Details of relevant UK Legislation
