Letters

If you have come across a site that is inaccessible, and you want to let them know of the importance of accessibility for a web site, and ask them to make efforts to make their site accessible to all, it is a good idea to send the webmaster of the site a message expressing this. Although many sites ignore such letters, there are also many that are receptive to visitor complaints and they may make their site accessible if they receive enough requests.

In fact, many sites claim that they don't make their pages more accessible because they don't think their visitors need them to be, and quote lack of complaints as their reason. Make sure that sites you visit know it's important to be accessible by everyone. Don't let ignorance be their excuse. You may want to encourage them to visit the W3C's Web Accessibility Standards at: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/ for information on how to make their sites more accessible.

Below are some example letters that have been sent by participants in the campaign, that you can modify for your own use when you notify sites that they're inaccessible and that you want them to fix it. If you have any example letters that you think should be listed here, please let me know.

For more guidance on how to contact websites about accessibility issues, see WAI's Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites.

Letter Courtesy of Jean Yim

Dear web administrator,

I am saddened to inform you that your site is not accessible by many
people because of your exclusive use of frames.  A great number of
Internet users access the World Wide Web via a frames/java-incapable
browser. Upgrading software is not an option for many users.

Limiting your site by making it "best viewed by Netscape and/or Internet
Explorer" severely restricts the ability of people who do not or can not
use those particular web browsers.  Blind and low vision users, for
example, are severely discriminated against by your restrictions.

You have obviously spent a lot of time and thought in designing and
creating your site.  It is a shame that your work is unavailable to so
many people.  It is frustrating to know that your site could be greatly
improved by the addition of a simple text or a no frames/java version
and the use of alt tags.

The Best Viewed With Any Browser site,
http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/, contains many good ideas on how to
make your site more accessible and usable by all browsers.  You can also
read the W3C's Web Accessibility Standards at:
https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/

Thank you for your time.


More Example Letters: