WEB ACCESSIBILITY

Web Accessibility



Web Accessibility

Introduction

The Web Accessibility is the issue of access to online content and services for disabled and elderly . Defined by standards techniques established by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), it requires treatment throughout the lifecycle of a website , for all its stakeholders through methods of applications, repositories and business process monitoring. Although a component and a lever for improving their overall quality, the actual degree of accessibility of websites is very low in 2008.

Web accessibility includes all disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disorders. For more information, consult the document How People with Disabilities use the Web which describes how different disabilities affect Web use and presents examples of people with disabilities who use the Web. Web accessibility can also contribute and benefit organizations and businesses, as well as people without disabilities. For example, a key principle of Web accessibility is flexibility to meet different needs, situations and preferences. The flexibility is beneficial to all those who use the Web, including people without disabilities in different situations (such as a slow connection), people with temporary disabilities (such as those with a broken arm), and some elderly people. Web accessibility, in some cases, it is required by law.

Building a Web Site Accessible

The effort required to make a site accessible depends on many factors, such as content type, size and complexity of the site and the tools and development environment.

Most of the accessibility features are easily implemented as planned at the beginning of the project development or restructuring. In any case, the adjustment of existing sites may require significant effort, especially for sites where it was used a standard code XHTML, and where there are certain types of content, such as multimedia.

Assess the accessibility of the Web

In the development and restructuring of a site, a preliminary assessment made throughout development and can help you to find quickly the issues relating to accessibility, when they are easier to solve, rather than waiting for the end of the development phase. Simple techniques, such as changing preferences in a common browser, may determine whether a web page conforms to certain guidelines regarding accessibility. A comprehensive evaluation to determine if a site actually complies with all accessibility guidelines is a much more complex.

The evaluation of accessibility of Web sites contains a section on preliminary assessments to be carried out using techniques that ensure fast some of the issues regarding the accessibility of a site, and a section on assessment of compliance with general procedures and tips for evaluating compliance accessibility guidelines. There are automated tools that aid in the assessment made, in any case, no tool alone can determine whether a site meets accessibility guidelines. And 'request the assessment made by an expert to determine if a site is accessible.

At present, there is no formal definition of the concept and fully embraced web accessibility. In addition, there are a number of myths about web accessibility that for last few ...