Dating websites fail disabled people

The problems of poor web accessibility extends even to sites specifically aimed at people with disabilities, according to one IT charity.

An ongoing survey into the failure of websites to address the needs of people with disabilities by Abilitynet took a topical turn in the run up to Valentine's Day.

It found four dating websites aimed specifically for disabled people lacked the fundamental features required to make the sites accessible. Only one, disabledfriends.com, gained a minimum three star accessibility rating from the national computing and disability charity. Five mainstream sites also failed to score in terms of website accessibility.

The report looked at both usability and accessibility with a focus on the real-life challenges that disabled users experience when attempting to register on dating sites and use their search criteria to find a match.

In addition to a series of manual checks, the assessment included a range of tests employing the types of adaptive techniques commonly used by disabled people such as screen readers and voice-recognition technology.

Abilitynet said it would appear there has been no discernable movement towards accessibility since the Disability Rights Commission investigation in 2004 .

Common problems that continue to plague websites include text size, particularly for headings and links is ‘hard-coded’ which means that the writing can't be easily enlarged – so vital for many visitors who have a vision impairment or dyslexia.

The text labels attached to images upon which blind visitors and text browser users rely for an explanation are often uninformative or completely absent. Without these spoken labels on graphical links, navigation for a blind visitor is pure guesswork. Pictures of text are often used instead of actual text.

This not only means that the user cannot modify the text size or colour contrast – essential for those with a vision impairment or dyslexia – it also prevents screen reader users from reading the content when – as so frequently happens - these images are left unlabelled.

Some sites contain adverts and features made up of moving images that will be distracting for visitors with a cognitive impairment, or interactive presentations known as ‘Flash Movies’ which can present access problems for visitors who cannot use a mouse, are vision impaired or who use speech output or voice-recognition software.

Some of the sites are reliant on mini programs embedded in the page called Javascript. These are a problem for people using older browsers, those with vision impairments using some special browsers and users whose organisations disable Javascript for security reasons.

The survey’s author, Robin Christopherson, Abilitynet’s web consultancy manager, himself blind, said: “Millions of people find internet dating a convenient and successful way to find a partner and latterly it has become a lucrative business for providers of online dating sites.

"For disabled people, who are more likely to be home-based, as well as relatively less well off and limited in their scope for getting out and meeting people, making new friends online may well be their main opportunity to socialise.

"To impede disabled people from using these sites is therefore a cause of great concern.”

The following nine sites only scored two out of five stars, meaning they lack the fundamental features to enable disabled people to access and navigate them effectively.

The four sites specifically aimed at disabled people were, whispers4u.com, disableddate.co.uk, cupidcalls.co.uk and www.disableunited.com.

The five mainstream sites were loopylove.com, girlsdateforfree.com, datingdirect.com, www.match.com and friendsreuniteddating.co.uk.