Limax Web Services
Accessibility
"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web should be accessible to all. This includes those with text-only access, slow Internet connections, old or unusual browsers and also people with visual, hearing, mobility, learning or cognitive disabilities.
HTML, by design, makes flexible, accessible web sites. Unfortunately too many sites strive to force a fixed view for everyone - as if a web site was a printed brochure. Users will experience sites differently - different equipment, different settings. Not all users will have a mouse, not all users will have a screen.
There are sound business reasons for making your web site accessible, as well as ethical and legal ones. It is often thought that an accessible web site will take longer to develop. In fact, if accessibility is considered from the outset, it takes no more effort and you will end up with a web site which is more useable for everyone and also more future-proof (for example: speech browsers may one day be common in cars).
Many countries now have laws requiring web sites to be accessible, including the UK Disability Discrimination Act and the USA Section 508. A high profile case occurred in Australia in 2000 when the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was successfully sued over the accessibility of the official Olympic Games web site (Maguire v SOCOG).
You can find out more about accessibility at the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
