Accessibility for users with disabilities
The objective here is to increase the accessibility of your
content delivered over the internet/intranet to all end users,
including those with disabilities.
Accordingly one needs to consider not only the look and operation
of a web site, but also how easily it can be accessed by people with
disabilities.
There are many reasons to make your site more accessible
including:
- Demonstrating good corporate responsibility by not
discriminating against people with disabilities
- Complying with existing legal requirements (such as
the US government's Section 508 and the UK's Disability
Discrimination Act) and thereby negating the possibility of
legal action
- Specifically targeting the large number of people with
disabilities amongst online users
- Accommodating an ageing online population who as they
grow older experience similar issues to those with disabilities
WAI and Section 508
In the case of legal responsibilities, for example:
- In Europe governments tend to frame their legislation around
the Web Accessibility Initiative developed by the W3C (World
Wide Web Consortium) which sets technical standards for the web
- In the USA there is a law known as Section 508 which
is accompanied by detailed technical guidelines for accessible
web design
Achieving accessibility compliance
Meeting web accessibility guidelines has a significant benefits,
as with effective implementation every visitor to your site benefits
from the enhanced and structured design, whether they have special
requirements for access or not.
Implementation is concerned with a wide range of elements
including text, graphics, colour, frames, dynamic elements,
multi-media, etc. that affect the experience of the visitor.
Individuals with disabilities access the web in several ways as they
may use customized browser settings, such as font size, colour, and
screen resolution and may also rely on assistive devices.
Level of compliance
Accessibility can be provided for sites according to the level of
compliance required. For example, in the case of W3C's
compliance levels can be supplied to meet:
- Conformance Level "A"
- Conformance Level "Double-A"
- Conformance Level "Triple-A"
…. satisfying the priority checkpoints of the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines.
I have an existing site – how should this be handled?
Accessibility for your web is of course best incorporated right
from the very start. However where this is not the case and
there is an existing site, compliance can often be achieved
relatively easily.
Where there is a requirement to upgrade accessibility
levels, Konnect Soft:
- Reviews any existing site or content
- Checks for accessibility compliance
- Supplies proposals for improvement
- Implements improvements according to the level of
compliance required