Think that people with disabilities are a minority to be ignored? Think again.

"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

"A lot of Web sites are losing a lot of business because they don't think about disability. It's not just blind people. It's a large number of people, including anybody 45 or older."
-- Sharron Rush, then Executive Director of Knowbility in an interview with USA TODAY

• Who the disabled are.
• How the disabled view the Internet.
• What makes a web site "accessible".
• Why you should have an accessible web site.

Who the disabled are:
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Those with disabilities are a definite presence, yet the majority of the web sites on the cannot be viewed by them. According to a 1997 report by the United States Census Bureau, close to 20% of the population is disabled. These disabilities can include visual, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments. Some of the population are permanently disabled, some temporarily due to an accident or injury, and others are just being affected by the normal aging process.

TABLE 1. PREVALENCE OF DISABILITY BY AGE: 1997

How the disabled view the Internet:
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Disabled users have a variety of ways to "view" the Internet depending on their disability.

Blind users will have a program that reads the text of the web page aloud. The program however, cannot interpret text images or animation. By making your web site accessible, we add text under the image that is able to be read by the software.

Users unable to manipulate a mouse use their keyboard exclusively to browse the Internet. Other users cannot use a mouse or a keyboard as normal and must employ the use of touch screens or "head pointers" to interact with Internet. If your web site requires a user to utilize a mouse in order to successfully purchase a good, the disabled user will find a retailer that has a more accessible web site.

What makes a web site "accessible":
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An accessible web site is developed with consideration for people with disabilities so that they can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with not only the content but the web site itself. To successfully develop a web site with this in mind requires knowledge of how each segment of the disabled population "accesses" the Internet and ultimately your web site.

• Visual:
  • described graphics or video;
  • well marked-up tables or frames;
  • keyboard support, screen reader compatibility;
• Hearing:
  • captioning for audio, supplemental illustration;
• Physical, Speech:
  • keyboard or single-switch support;
  • alternatives for speech input on voice portals;
• Cognitive, Neurological:
  • consistent navigation, appropriate language level;
  • illustration; no flickering or strobing designs.

    --The above list is made available by the W3C.

Why you should have a accessible web site:
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It is important for any business to have an web site accessible by people with disabilities for a number of reasons.

Web Accessibility is a Marketplace Issue

• At least 10% of the population in most countries has disabilities;
  • visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities can all affect access to the Web
• Average age of population in many countries is increasing;
  • aging sometimes results in combinations of accessibility issues;
  • vision & hearing changes, changes in dexterity & memory.
• Few organizations can afford to deliberately miss this market sector.

Accessibility Contributes to Universal Design (Design for All)

Accessible Web design contributes to better design for other users:

• Multi-modality (support for visual, auditory, tactile access) benefits users of:
  • mobile phones with small display screens, Web-TV, kiosks.
• Multi-modality increases usability of Web sites in different situations:
  • low bandwidth (images are slow to download);
  • noisy environments (difficult to hear the audio);
  • screen-glare (difficult to see the screen);
  • driving (eyes and hands are "busy").
• Redundant text/audio/video can support:
  • different learning styles; low literacy levels; second-language access.
• Style sheets can support:
  • more efficient page transmission and site maintenance.
• Captioning of audio files supports:
  • better machine indexing of content; faster searching of content.

Web Accessibility is Sometimes a Requirement

A number of governments require accessibility of specific kinds of Web sites.

• often required for government Web sites first;
• sometimes for educational or commercial sites;
• provinces, states, municipalities may have requirements;
• corporations and non-governmental organizations sometimes set own requirements.

--The above lists are made available by the W3C