There are over 10 million disabled people in the UK. Many find it difficult to shop, find information or book services online because most websites are not accessible.

The RNID website has been designed to achieve the highest levels of accessibility as defined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) (external link, opens new browser window) by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (external link, opens new browser window).

It has also been validated as XHTML 1.0 Transitional (external link, opens new browser window) and the stylesheets meet the W3C's Cascading Stylesheets (external link, opens new browser window) level 2 specification.

These are industry standards, and by designing our website to meet these standards all users, including users of assistive technologies, should find it straightforward to navigate around and use our website.

In addition to using guidelines and automated testing tools our website has been extensively tested with a diversity of real people throughout its development. People with a range of disabilities have been involved in the evaluation process from the earliest stages.

Meeting standards 

Our website is driven by a content management system (CMS) and there are two criteria specified in the WCAG that we have not been able to manage through the CMS in this phase of development. These are:

As an alternative, wherever possible, we try to introduce all quotations and spell out abbreviations and acronyms in their first instances on web pages, until we can manage these through the CMS.

Due to our use of "Vanity URLs", some links on a page will exist with both their vanity name (for example www.rnid.org.uk/shop (external link)) and their coded name (for example www.rnid.org.uk/content.aspx?id=83569 (external link)) but point to the same target. An automatic validator will fail these pages as it will not be clever enough to realise that the destination for both links is the same page.

RNID aims to maintain best practice and ensure compliance with appropriate accessibility standards. We will continue to review, evaluate and modify our website for accessibility issues and aim to ensure our compliance is an ongoing commitment.

Accessible and attractive

A popular misconception is that it is impossible to create accessible websites that are design-rich. Our website aims to demonstrate accessible websites can be both very accessible and look good.

More information on accessibility

If you are interested in finding out more about accessible websites our Help desk section contains useful information on:

If you have any comments or queries about the accessibility of our website please contact the RNID Webteam.