In 1989 Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.  His objective was to foster collaboration and accessibility through the global sharing of documents between scientists. The fundamental principle of that first form of the internet was an open standard for defining a document’s content.

That standard is called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).  Interest in this concept increased with multiple groups contributing to the standard.  In 1994, those contributors agreed to form the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) to provide an independent body that would review contributions to the standard and define which were approved.

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

In 1997, with the release of HTML 3.2, the basic definition of webpages as we know them today was set.  It was improved upon in 1999 with HTML 4.01 (this was about the time the first online surveys were produced).  It was not until 2014 when the next major shift in the standard was implemented (HTML 5.0).  The standard is constantly maturing to reflect the changing nature of the internet.  Many of the original structures used in early releases have since been deprecated.

As the World Wide Web was invented to foster collaboration and accessibility, one of the early actions of the W3C was to setup a sub-group focused on ensuring the content would be accessible to the disabled.  At this time, disabled meant visually impaired.

In 1995 The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were setup. This body created a set of guidelines (so WCAG is both the name of the body and the guidelines they provide) that explained how web pages should be created to be consumable by the disabled.

WCAG exists in various versions: 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, and (currently) 2.2. Updated versions are released to keep pace with changes in technology.

Initially, Government bodies and charities were the only clients requesting that surveys completed via the web were accessible.  However, the shift towards the Environmental, Social and Governance framework (ESG) and the need for companies to be seen to be ethical and sustainable has resulted in a wider interest in accessibility.  Many market research agencies make ESG a central part of their ethos and need to demonstrate inclusivity and that includes accessibility to their online surveys.

Equally research buyers are recognising that the products and services they sell have to be inclusive and so they are looking to test and get feedback on issues and potential improvements.  This means that more disabled people are being encouraged to complete surveys which in turns means that more proposals include a need to prove accessibility.