Conclusions
Our research has highlighted that there is still a very real problem with web site accessibility in the higher and further education sector. In our view this conclusion is not particularly surprising.
It would be unfair to imply that the higher and futher education sector institutions are not taking web accessibility seriously. We believe that most do take the issue seriously. Many higher and further education web sites are huge with no central editorial control. They are often run by many departments throughout the institution. In such cases it is hard to implement a successful accessibility policy.
It can also be hard to maintain a site's accessibility over the long term. Many sites reviewed claimed to be accessible when in actual fact they were not. This was not necessarily because there was any intention to mislead. A more likely reason is that, at some point, the site was accessible but there were inadequate processes in place to ensure that the site remained accessible when changes are made.