PAS 78 - Note: PAS 78 Superseded By BS 8878 in December 2010

Note: PAS 78 Superseded By BS 8878 in December 2010

In December 2010, PAS 78 was superseded by the full British Standard that evolved from it: BS 8878:2010 Web accessibility Code of Practice.

BS 8878 continues PAS 78’s emphasis on providing guidance to non-technical website owners for the whole process of commissioning, procuring and producing accessible websites, updating it to handle:

• web 2.0’s much wider purposes for websites (e.g. multimedia sites, software as a service sites) and the move from provider-produced content to user-generated content (e.g. blogs, Facebook, YouTube)
• the increasing range of devices on which websites are viewed (e.g. smartphones, tablets, IPTV)
• the increasing use of non-W3C technologies to produce websites
• the increasing use of “off the shelf” website builder tools to create websites rather than bespoke development
• the increasing use of on-site accessibility personalisation tools like CSS style-switchers
• the changing organisational structure of web product teams and key personnel impacting product accessibility, especially the growing role of web product managers

(for more information see British Accessibility Standards – PAS-78 to BS8878 by the chair of IST/45 BSI drafting committee)

A summary of BS 8878 by its lead-author, Jonathan Hassell, including case studies of organisations using BS 8878, detailed blogs on its use by SMEs, tools and training for applying BS 8878, and news on its progress towards becoming an International Standard can be found at BS 8878 web accessibility and inclusive design standard – introduction and news.

BS 8878 can be purchased from the BSi Shop.