Yesterday I wrote about the imminent arrival of the new National Trust website and my involvement in the last version. Well today, the new site has gone live and I am left feeling somewhat disappointed by the result.

Using web standards, many web designers have become a lot better at ensuring their sites are readable by speech browsers but what about the much larger audience that have some limited vision.

There is a growing rift between web designers over the issue of accessibility. Three camps exist, those who believe accessibility is about disability, those who believe it is broader than that and those who really do not care either way. As normal, my position is a foot in two camps.

Yesterday I read an excellent blog entry on the subject of accessibility. Although much of it is not appropriate for this blog I thought I would share with you one of two extracts that underline by approach to accessibility.

I often talk about the fact that we have a legal obligation to make our web sites accessibility. I also promote the financial benefits of making your web site accessible to all. But I have come to believe we also have a morale obligation to improve access to our sites.

Why is it important for a business to make its website accessible and how to go about achieving it.

If you work for any kind of public sector organisation and are responsible for their web presence you will be all too aware of the term “accessibility”.