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 Robert T. Butler

Dear business,

I must sadly inform you that your exclusive use of frames and/or java
has cost you a potential customer.  I, like great number of Internet
users, log on to the WWW via a frames/java-incapable browser.  It is the
mark of a smart business which explores the powerful marketing potential
of the Internet, yet excluding a significant portion of your market from
viewing most or all of your web site conjures quite a different image.
Indeed it is also frustrating for those of us who are eager to conduct
business over the Internet, yet suddenly discover that our browsing
software is no longer supported.  Even more frustrating is knowing that
a simple text or no java/frames alternative could be supplied.  The
better businesses on the WWW offer this service.  Nonetheless, the
unhappy trend is to simply tell the user to upgrade his software.  For
many of us this is not an option, as our hardware cannot support it. 
Your business has obviously invested a good deal of thought, time, and
money in bringing your site to the WWW, so why do an incomplete job of
it?  Let us low-techs view your site.  Your business can only profit
from it.


More Example Letters: