South Australia Leads The Way!
Quite often Adelaide gets a bad rap, with many people saying that our state lags behind the rest of the country in many areas, especially when compared to the eastern estates. But, when it comes to digital accessibility, it is simply not true! South Australia is leading the way!
Why is this important? Because 4.4 million people live with a disability in Australia; this is almost 20% of the population. While people with disabilities do access digital media, they sadly can only do so when it’s developed accordingly. The simple fact is that accessible websites are rare at the moment.
However, that is changing. On 16th May 2019, the South Australian Government released its Online Accessibility Policy for all public-facing government media. This policy has been praised nationally and even by international organisms. My team and I at Edu Net Solutions have joined the movement. Since May, we have been incorporating digital accessibility on every Department for Education school website we have developed. We are proud to say that we are the first and only private company to bring web accessibility to schools at a state-level.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the South Australian government’s ground breaking policy is a dual category finalist in the Australian Access Awards. Edu Net Solutions has also been acknowledged for the Whyalla School Website, which is a finalist in the category, Education Website of the Year. We are the only web development company in South Australia and the eastern states to have received this recognition and we give thanks to the Centre of Accessibility for this honour.
So, I can safely say that South Australia is leading the way in digital accessibility nation wide! This policy is paving the way for accessible websites to be the norm. Do we have to wait for a lawsuit to make our school websites accessible? I believe we need to be proactive. Digital accessibility should be a core part of web design; excessive animation and bright colours must not.
Quoting a fantastic article I shared this week … Accessibility is an opportunity, not a burden.
If you would like to know how to make your website accessible, please get in touch with us. We’d love to see if we can help you.