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Home > Services > Website Design > PAS 78

PAS 78

PAS 78: Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites.

PAS 78 stands for Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 78 and has been developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) in sponsorship with the Disability Rights Commission (DRC). This PAS outlines good practice in developing websites that are not only accessible, but usable by disabled people.

Published in March 2006, the purpose of PAS 78 is to meet the need of website commissioners and not the designers or developers. The specification was complied due to the lack of considerations most websites take in terms of accessibility. In April 2004, the DRC published their report showing a Formal Investigation into accessible website design and web accessibility in the UK. 81% of surveyed website failed to meet even the basic W3C accessibility guidelines under the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), even though most claimed to understand and were aware of the guidelines.

The DRC identified the need for best practise guidelines or specifications to help when commissioning new accessible websites. The document is intended to help draw up website specification documents and tenders, and to allow for further practical discussions with a website design agency.

PAS 78 includes the following areas to develop the specification:

• How disabled people use websites.
• Defining the accessibility policy for the website.
• Web technologies.
• Accessibility testing and maintenance.
• Contracting web design and accessibility auditing services.

As well as a specification, PAS 78 also gives recommendations for the management and processes involved in the development of accessible websites, and involving disabled people in the process (in the form of feedback and testing).

For further information please visit the DRC website where you can download the full PAS 78 document in PDF or Microsoft Word format. Visit the BSI website for further information on PAS 78.