| 2004 |
|
YEAR BOOK |
Waterford Institute of Technology
|
Accessibility guidelines for the World Wide Web
|
There are approximately 750 million people with disabilities worldwide. Europe's population is 370 million, ten percent of whom are disabled (37 million) and, as EU experts emphasise, this is the most socially marginalised group. The Web is extremely important to users with disabilities as it provides access to services, products, and information that are not as easily obtained by these users due to the circumstances related to their disabilities. Web accessibility is defined as the degree to which web information is accessible to all human beings and automatic tools. Inaccessible and poorly designed websites can hinder the majority of users when using the web to communicate, access information, and take advantage of eLearning opportunities.
Currently, research is being carried out into formalising guidelines and standards addressing Web and Internet accessibility, with a view to making the WWW more accessible to this marginalised group.
The Web Accessibility Initiative (W.A.I) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and Section 508 of the American Rehabilitation Act, are two of the leaders in providing web accessibility guidelines. These leaders have created Web guidelines, which are relevant to content, authoring tools and browsers. The primary goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. However, following these guidelines will also make Web content more available to all users, whatever they are using (e.g., desktop browser, mobile phone, etc.), or whatever constraints they may be operating under (e.g., noisy surroundings, etc.). Designers who follow these guidelines will also help people to find information on the Web more quickly. These guidelines do not discourage content developers from using multimedia elements such images, video, etc., but rather explain how to make multimedia content more accessible to a wide audience.
Contact: Catherine Fitzpatrick; E-mail: [email protected]; Martina Lanigan;
E-mail: [email protected] ;Web: http://www.wit.ie/ads/development/research_files/RG_e-Learning.htm