For
Your Company Web Site.com
1. Why Web Accessibility 1
2. Accessibility Issues 2
3. Overview of Your Company Web Site Accessibility 3
4. A Sample Accessibility Conversion 4
5. Repair Effort Estimate 5
6. Conclusions 6
Why Web Accessibility
The world population is aging. Today over 20 percent of the US population is over 55 and that percentage is growing rapidly. With age come disabilities. We don’t generally think of a person wearing bifocals as being disabled. With enlarged fonts that the browsers support, the middle distance computer screen becomes much easier and less stressful to read. Your page must be designed for accessibility in order for those enlarged fonts to work correctly.
If your web site is accessible that means that people with disabilities can use it. A blind person using a screen reader or a talking browser can navigate your information and interact with it. A deaf person will not have problems with your site.
Accessible design has value beyond accommodating people with disabilities. It prepares sites for emerging technologies.
Voice navigation of a web site (using speech recognition) is made possible by incorporating some of the accessibility requirements, especially alternative text for image links and image maps.
There is an explosion of small devices that can interact with the web, including smart phones and hand held computers. Web site requirements for use with small devices include those for accessibility.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is basically a civil rights law that says that places of public accommodation must be accessible to people with disabilities. The Justice department has ruled that the ADA applies to the Web.[1]
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended in 1998 requires that Federal agencies electronic and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities including employees and members of the public. Section 508