HC Deb 18 June 2003 vol 407 cc304-5W
Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what actions he has taken or is taking to ensure that the websites of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are accessible to partially sighted and blind people; and if he will make a statement. [117353]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

The Department for Education and Skills website has been designed in accordance with UK government accessibility guidelines for web design, incorporating guidance from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), the accessibility initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards and development body for the web. The site design has also been validated using "Bobby"; an industry standard web-based accessibility tool that analyses web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities.

The Department has also ensured that non-departmental public bodies are aware of UK government web standards and has issued supplementary guidance for these bodies.