British Standard 8878 (BS 8878) is a Web Accessibility Code of Practice which was published by the
BSI Group
The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom. BSI produces technical standards on a wide range of products and services and also supplies certification and standards-related services to business ...
(also known as the British Standards Institution or BSI). The standard was officially launched on 7 December 2010.
BS 8878 defines a process for creating and embedding a web accessibility strategy within an organisation. It is written in non technical language and is aimed at people within an organisation who have responsibilities for web strategy or development. The standard consists largely of 16 steps in roughly three categories.
The term "web product" is introduced in BS 8878 to describe any web-based service. It encompasses web sites, web applications, software as a service, cloud based services and other services accessed via a web browser.
BS 8878 is not intended as a competitor or alternative to the
WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are part of a series of web accessibility guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for th ...
guidelines developed by
W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...
WAI
Wai or WAI may refer to :
Places
* Wai, Maharashtra, a small town in India
** Wai (Vidhan Sabha constituency), a Maharashtra Legislative Assembly constituency centered around the town
* Wao State (Vav, Wai, Way), a former princely state in Banas K ...
. Rather, it defines the processes needed in the planning and deployment of accessible web products. This can include the selection of WCAG guidelines. BS 8878 is part of the UK government's broader self-regulatory approach to standardization.
On 28 May 2019, BS 8878 was superseded by ISO 30071-1, the international standard that built on BS 8878 and expanded it for international use. More information can be found via the official website for the standar
ISO 30071-1.
References
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Further Information
* BS 8878 web accessibility standards (supersedes PAS 78) – all you need to know, Jonathan Hassell, Hassell Inclusion, http://www.hassellinclusion.com/bs8878/
* BS8878 Web Accessibility Code of Practice, Léonie Watson, Nomensa blog, 10 December 2010, http://www.nomensa.com/blog/2010/bs8878-web-accessibility-code-of-practice/
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