Web accessibility experts Nomensa had something of a PR coup recently when they declared that 97 per cent of Web sites did not provide a minimum level of accessibility for blind or disabled Internet users. In their survey of leading Web sites from 20 different countries, 93 per cent failed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphics – an inexcusably lazy omission – and 98% did not follow industry web standards for the programming code. The BBC reported their findings, which, it has to be said, were met with deafening indifference by the Internet industry in the UK. At least, I didn’t see a flurry of press release from companies eager to tout their new-found disabled-friendly credentials.
Always wanting to do the best for LoveHoney visitors, we got in touch with Nomensa to find out how much it would cost for them to test our site. (£3,500 and upwards for testing five pages is the short answer.) But anyway, I’m not sure how I managed it, but my e-mail address ended up on the Nomensa Christmas list and I received an e-mail Christmas card from them – a giant 800×600 image as it happened. You can see a smaller version of it here – the alt tag is Nomensa’s own and is something to behold. It gives you a full flavour of what they’re about…
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With its multiple “Read the rest of this entry” links all pointing to different locations, I note that sextoysinsider.com would probably fail various usability guidlines…
Come on Wordpress – sort it out!