Accessibility Overview
| What do we mean when we say that a site is or is not accessible? The objective of Section 508 is to ensure full access to online information to any impaired individual who is working for the government or in the public sector, regardless of the disability. The disabilities in question ”visual impairment, hearing impairment , and restricted locomotion, primarily ”affect a wide range of people in the U.S. According to a 1997 study by the U.S. Census [*] , almost 1/5th of the population (19.7%) suffers from some disability. Moreover, disabilities are seen to rise with age: 35.7% of Americans age 55 to 64 years old have a disability, as do more than half (54.5%) of those over the age of 65. These figures do not include those who are suffering from temporary disabilities, such as a broken arm. However, these people are also helped by Section 508; an accessible web site is navigable both by folks who are able to use a mouse and by those who are not.
Befitting the numbers , an entire industry has risen to supply the disabled with assistive technology. Some such technology is built in to the browser, such as the ability to use arrows and other keys to navigate a site. Other technology, such as screen readers, is more special purpose and must be added on. A screen reader is a software component that reads the page out loud for a web visitor. One example is Window-Eyes from GW Micro. Not only is the content read, but the navigation links and image alt text are read also. In addition to screen readers, accessible web pages must be able to handle touch screens, head pointers, and other mouse-less input devices. One key way that accessibility standards are implemented is by including HTML markup that is readable by an assistive device and ignored by a standard browser. Although this chapter is specifically concerned with U.S. guidelines covered in Section 508, accessibility is a worldwide concern. The U.S. regulations are based on the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Priority 1. (Priority 1 is deemed most important on three checkpoint levels.) Many other countries, including Germany, France, and Australia, have followed the same set of checkpoints. Some countries , including the United Kingdom (with the Guidelines for U.K. Government Web Sites) and Canada (with the Common Look and Feel Standard) have adopted stricter standards, based on Priority 1 and Priority 2 checkpoints. You can find a complete list of checkpoints at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/checkpoint-list.html. Implementing the Section 508 guidelines takes your site well down the road to compliance over much of the globe. |
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