Intranets and accessibility have received less attention than websites in general. However, there is a legal requirement, as well as an equally compelling business and moral case, for intranets to be accessible.
The legal requirement
Employers have an obligation to enable employees to access the resources and information necessary to do their jobs. If information on an intranet is not accessible to those with disabilities then the company may be in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
Equality Act 2010 - Employment Provisions
The Equality Act 2010, which replaces the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), aims to tackle the discrimination people with disabilities encounter. The employment element of this Act, brought into force on 6 April 2011, focuses on discrimination in relation to employment.
Visit GOV.UK for more information on employment rights under the Equality Act .
Code of Practice
The Code of Practice, published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), describes and gives general guidance on the main employment provisions of the Act.
For more detail please refer to the Codes of Practice on the EHRC website.
Corporate social responsibilities
Aside from legal obligations there are also corporate and social responsibilities, as web accessibility is increasingly recognised as a key component to responsible business practices.
Implementing accessibility policies internally is as beneficial as improving accessibility on external sites. Making your intranet accessible will enhance it for all, enabling more people to work for you, furthering social inclusion of people with disabilities.
Key steps for making an accessible intranet
The same rules and guidelines that apply to the accessibility of the World Wide Web also apply to intranets.
Design specifications - A major difference between intranets and the internet is that an organisation knows what web browsers and access technologies employees are using. This helps inform design decisions, possible levels of compliance and map out testing programs.
It is useful to contact IT for a list of software the company uses as well as send out an internal survey to all users asking about their preferences. It is important to remember that some people may not be registered disabled but still may have problems accessing pages. For example, people may rely on customising their browser to make text larger while others may have a temporary disability such as a broken wrist.
Intranet accessibility policy - Once the design specifications have been mapped an intranet accessibility policy needs to be put in place. This should form the basis of ongoing maintenance for the site and feed into training documents for content authors.
Content authors and training - Typically an intranet will have many content authors uploading content, possibly more so than an external website. It is essential that clear guidance and training is provided.
The process of making your intranet accessible will highlight what issues need to be addressed by the content authors. Common areas are:
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Clear link text - avoid jargon, dates, "click here", "more" and repeated link text to different pages.
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Linking to alternative file formats such as PDF, Word and Excel - make sure link text is clear, alternatives to PDF's are provided if possible and provide a link to Access Adobe.
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Alt text for images, graphs and charts is appropriate and conveys the equivalent information.
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Information presented in data tables is marked up properly.
For more information about these issues visit our accessibility checkpoints and design techniques pages.
Content Management Systems
Many companies now use a Content Management System (CMS) to publish content. When customising or implementing a CMS it is important to ensure that options are in place to make the published output accessible and that the CMS interface itself is also accessible.
This is covered in our section on Content Management Systems.