IMS_Blog

Taking of the accessibility of data, it’s good to see the accessibility of websites being given a boost by the UK publication of something being touted as “Publicly Available Specification” 78. The Register Article actually manages to give a fair overview. What struck me though was that given the number of charities, publically funded bodies and not-for-profit organisations involved wouldn’t have been nice if the thing didn’t cost you £30 to look at (that’s without VAT and seems to be £30 for the real thing or a PDF download—why the second isn’t cheaper I don’t know)? That way not only would small, independent webmasters who are maybe maintaining a site as part of other duties be able to consult it but the users themselves could see what they may expect of sites. I understand the unfortunate economics which leads to the charge, but it’s actually something which bugs me about a range of standards maintained by our “National Standards Body”. Companies have a large range of standards to claim compliance to (are these claims checked?) but it is difficult, or at least costly, to find out what the standard is they’re matching.

Update: The Web Standards Project points out that the specification is now freely available from the Disability Rights Commission. About bloody time.