Retail websites 'less accessible'

Webcredible's 2009 Ecommerce Accessibility Report has found that many retail websites are less accessible than they were a year ago.

The report assesses how accessible sites are to surfers with a broad range of disabilities.

Criteria include whether or not sites use appropriate alternative text for images, so that software programs used by blind surfers can read it.

Other factors considered include whether text has been embedded into images that cannot be resized and whether links that let surfers skip to the main content easily are provided.

Though the overall accessibility score was up from 56.8 per cent to 61.6 per cent, seven of the 19 retailers assessed, including HMV, B&Q and H Samuel - the top-rated site in 2008 - achieved lower scores than they did last year.

However, there were some success stories - Boots increased its rating from 37 per cent last year to 72 per cent in 2009, and WHSmith jumped from 41 per cent to 61 per cent.

John Lewis' website was judged to be the most accessible, followed by Boots and Argos.

Trenton Moss, director at Webcredible said: "Accessibility has unsurprisingly risen up the agenda for many retailers in the past year and sites like Boots have demonstrated that the improvements were there to be made.

"The average score for every guideline has improved, but the main reason for dropped points is still inconsistency, with many retailers applying accessibility guidelines to some pages but not others," continued Moss.

Moss warned that if companies didn't meet accessibility laws they could be fined.

"There are legal requirements for the accessibility of websites set out by the Disability Discrimination Act and if these are not met, then companies could find themselves in trouble," he said.