The OneVoice for Accessible ICT Coalition announced a new web accessibility initiative at the recent e-access 11 conference.

Too many websites are not accessible and one of the reasons for this is that website owners do not know how to begin. The new initiative 'The First Seven Steps to Accessible Websites' is a response to the question posed by many website owners "My website was not designed with accessibility as a consideration, I would like to improve the situation, how should I start?"

It is being delivered as an on-line book, which I edited, and describes seven initial steps that can be implemented relatively easily and will provide real accessibility benefits and help to map out the subsequent steps on the journey.

Although it is primarily intended for newcomers to accessibility the steps should be of interest to people who are on the accessibility journey and may have missed some useful steps. Please have a look and leave comments here. OneVoice is looking for assistance in validating, improving and extending the content of the document.

At the conference an extra step was added: 'Take a basic education course about accessibility'. The course suggested was also announced at the conference and is the 'Digital Accessibility eLearning' course commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, AbilityNet and the BCS. This a level 1 accredited qualification (I will write about this further when it is available).

At the same conference Sandi Wassmer, who is a member of the UK Government e-accessibility forum, talked about the "Ten Principles of Inclusive Web Design", that she developed for the forum. These principles provide an excellent guide to the continuation of the journey after the initial steps.

E-access 11 was an excellent conference and much of the day's proceedings are now available on the website. I hope to see many more people at e-access 12  planning their continuing accessibility journey.