What is Web Accessibility

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual,

Why Web Accessibility is Important

The Web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life: education, employment, government, commerce, health care, recreation, and more. It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. An accessible Web can also help people with disabilities more actively participate in society.

An important consideration for organizations is that Web accessibility is required by laws and policies in some cases. WAI Web Accessibility Policy Resources links to resources for addressing legal and policy factors within organizations, including a list of relevant laws and policies around the world.

Making the Web Accessible

One of the roles of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is to develop guidelines and techniques that describe accessibility solutions for Web software and Web developers. These WAI guidelines are considered the international standard for Web accessibility.

The document "Essential Components of Web Accessibility" describes the different Web accessibility roles, and how specific improvements could substantially advance Web accessibility.

Making Your Web Site Accessible

Making a Web site accessible can be simple or complex, depending on many factors such as the type of content, the size and complexity of the site, and the development tools and environment.

Many accessibility features are easily implemented if they are planned from the beginning of Web site development or redesign. Fixing inaccessible Web sites can require significant effort, especially sites that were not originally "coded" properly with standard XHTML markup, and sites with certain types of content such as multimedia.

The document "Implementation Plan for Web Accessibility" lists basic steps for addressing accessibility in Web projects. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and techniques documents provide detailed information for developers.

Evaluating the Accessibility of a Web Site

When developing or redesigning a site, evaluating accessibility early and throughout the development process can identify accessibility problems early when it is easier to address them. Simple techniques such as changing settings in a browser can determine if a Web page meets some accessibility guidelines. A comprehensive evaluation to determine if a site meets all accessibility guidelines is much more complex.

There are evaluation tools and validation sites, such as the W3C HTML Validator (http://validator.w3.org/) which can help.

Knowledgeable human evaluation is required to determine if a site is accessible.

The document "Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility" provides guidance on preliminary reviews using techniques to quickly assess some of the accessibility problems on a site. It also provides general procedures and tips for evaluating conformance to accessibility guidelines.

For More Information

The WAI Web site provides guidelines and resources to help make the Web accessible. These range from very short summaries, such as "Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web Sites," to resources on managing accessibility, to detailed technical references.

Quick Tips

While it is perfectly acceptable to provide graphics in a Web site, it is helpful to provide an alternative text or "ALT tag" describing any graphic element on a Web site to ensure users who prefer to exclude graphics or people with visual disabilities can obtain the information in a text format. A picture of a girl playing in a universally designed sandbox would be associated with an ALT tag stating: "This is a photo of a girl playing in a universally-designed sandbox."
a transcript is needed for all audio additions in order to assist a person who prefers to read text, can't access audio on their computer, or a person who is deaf, hard of hearing or has trouble understanding sound. If you have provided the audio to an interview on your site, having a text-based version would give people an alternate way to access the information.
If you couple an alternate format, like an ALT tag or transcript, with any non-text based inclusion, you will reach more people - people who are looking at a site in text-only, on a hand-held personal device, and persons with disabilities.
Web sites with complex language can be difficult for a person for whom English is a second language or a person with a cognitive disability. When planning a Web site, be sure to provide the information in the simplest form. This way more people will be able to access and gain understanding about the information contained within your site.
The actual design of a Web site can hinder accessibility. Web sites that are designed without enough contrast to the colours (like light text on a light background) make the information hard to read or understand. High contrast is desirable, like black and white or yellow and black. If it seems difficult to read the content on a Web page this way, it is likely that some color alterations should be considered.
A popular way to share information is through a Portable Document Format (PDF). A PDF is a good way to preserve fonts, graphics, and the look of a paper-based document. However, PDF format is often not accessible to people who use screen reader programs. If you have placed a PDF on your Web site, consider providing the information in a way that is accessible to people who cannot utilize it- like an HTML or a plain-text version.

This does not mean that you should have a text-only white page with black text? There are many ways to obtain a colourful graphics-rich Web site that is accessible to people of all abilities. With a few changes, most Web sites can be accessible with minimal time and expense to the benefit of everyone involved.

The links below mostly go to www.accessibility101.org.uk that provide guidance on accessibilty