Home | Issues | Users | Motives | Tools | Resources | Validators
There are three excellent reasons to make your web site accessible to users with disabilities:
• They are a large potential customer base.
• Government regulations require it.
• Common human decency.
This would seem an appropriate place to mention that actual design techniques to comply are relatively easy. The cost of satifying the accessibility requirements are minor and only require the addition of a few techniques and checkpoints (which some would argue are only a part of good design anyway).
The opinion of this author is that complying with accessibility guidelines are a matter of deep-thinking usability and emphasizing content over style, then completing some rather simple steps which will aid various users.
Customers are too valuable to frustrate with poor page design. Does an e-commerce page design virtually exclude customers with disabilities? Consider how cluttered some e-commerce pages "look" - with rows of choices and links. Consider further how this must seem to a person using a screen reader - having to hear all the choices and remember them (rather than visually scan the navigation choices). This to me is a strong argument for a simple, logical navigation scheme as well as an easy-to-understand page layout.
The following article from the New York Times vividly portrays the freedom
offered to a blind person by ordering groceries on the web. Is it a stretch
to see that this applies to all commercial web sites?
http://www.webaim.org/articles/nytimes-article
"In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal
agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people
with disabilities. Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. § 794d), agencies must
give disabled employees and members of the public access to this
technology that is comparable to the access available to others. The law applies
to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic
and information technology."
http://www.section508.gov
However, at this point the US Government defers to the guidelines and work
of the World Wide Web Consortium concerning web sites and pages.The FITAI identifies
"13 Rules for Accessible Web Pages":
http://www.section508.gov/docs/webrules.htm
Following is a quote from an article published by ZDNet which highlights the
frustration of the disabled using popular browsers. If this area is unfamiliar
territory, this article is an eye-opener.
"...Since the adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act 10 years
ago, hardware and software vendors as well as Web designers have been under
pressure to make the Information Age available to everyone who can benefit from
it, including the estimated 50 million disabled U.S. citizens. For many of those
disabled Americans, the inefficiencies Campbell complains of result in more
than just frustration. In the workplace, they result in a major loss of productivity..."
http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/stories/general/0,11011,2618369,00.html
Following is a quote from a short article by Paul Bohman, Technology
Coordinator, Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM), Utah State University which
points to the need and solution concerning these issues.
"As the importance of the Internet increases, so does the need to make
its content available to larger, more diverse audiences. These audiences use
a variety of technologies to access the Web, ranging from traditional browsers
on desktop computers to portable, hand-held devices, cell phones and hands-free
devices. The need to accommodate these technologies through more universal Web
design strategies grows with every new technology which is introduced. Web developers
who ignore the emerging trend toward multiple-environment Internet access will
be left to lament their inability to reach important segments of the population.
One important segment of the population which will benefit from the increased
emphasis on universal design is the disability community. Unfortunately, not
enough attention is currently given to the principles of universal Web design
to provide individuals with the disabilities with the same standard of access
to the Internet as the rest of population. Many Web sites are partially or completely
inaccessible to individuals with disabilities, even though most accessibility
"fixes" are quite easy to implement."
http://www.webaim.org/articles/webnet2000
Top | Home | Issues | Users | Motives | Tools | Resources | Validators
Web Site Updated December 8, 2000
Web Site Created November 20, 2000
By Bill Teysko, teysko@home.com
For CIS213,
Cuyamaca College, El Cajon, CA
Url: http://www.oocities.org/webaccess2k
Credits page