Learn practical ways to make your Web site standards compliant and more accessible to readers with visual, hearing, mobility or learning disabilities.

Imagine you have paraplegia.

You don't have use of your legs and your global mobility is assisted using various devices - a custom built wheelchair; a specially-equipped van that you drive yourself; specific architectural features in public buildings and transportation systems; and barrier-reducing laws and regulations that support and ensure your access to the world. Yet you drive up to the front of your neighbourhood movie theatre only to find that all of the parking spaces reserved for the disabled are filled with vehicles that are not marked with the legitimizing permit.

The theatre seat, and the next Oscar-winning Best Picture, is so close yet impossible to get to. Can you sense the frustration?

According to the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, using the facts provided by Social Development Canada, 12 to 15 per cent of the population is deemed to be disabled. This represents a tremendous portion of Web users, and as a group they may be higher in terms of proportionate web use than persons without disabilities.

Not providing technical and functional accessibility to a Web site is becoming analogous to parking in the disability access space in front of the theatre without a permit. It's denying a rightful user and potential customer the access to the information he or she needs and deserves.  Many public and private sector site owners are accepting their responsibilities in Web accessibility, and indeed some, like IBM,  are seeing that accessibility is good for business.

Restricted access is caused by many forms of disability - visual, auditory/hearing, mobility, and cognitive/learning. Each form has had certain assistive devices, content publishing processes and internet best practices developed in order to overcome the user's inability to find, receive and interpret the information. These systems and standards are well defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C - www.w3c.org ) and Web Accessibility in Mind ( http://www.webaim.org/ ) . The basic issues, according to WebAIM, are:

Visual - Visually impaired people use "screen readers" and they use their keyboard rather than their mouse.

Auditory/Hearing - Not all hearing impaired people speak sign language. Video on the Web is often not large enough or clear enough to make sign language understandable. Not every hearing impaired person speaks the same sign language.

Mobility - Most assistive technologies for people with motor disabilities either work through the keyboard or emulate the functionality of the keyboard.

Cognitive/Learning - In many cases, the techniques for making Web content more accessible to people with cognitive disabilities are nothing more than techniques for effective communication.

Accessibility standards that will enable Web sites to adequately address these issues have been well structured and defined by the World Wide Web Consortium, and can be found in the document "Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0".  The document outlines the three levels of accessibility "Priorities", the fourteen guidelines and the associated Checkpoints that should be addressed in order to achieve the Priorities.

If the Priority 1 guidelines are not met, one or more of the disability groups will find it impossible to access the Web site.

If the Priority 2 guidelines are not met, one or more of the disability groups will find it difficult to access the Web site.

If the Priority 3 guidelines are not met, one or more of the disability groups may find it difficult to access the Web site. In other words, compliance with W3C Priority 3 is the only way to provide for a fully accessible Web site.

The Ontario Government is determining that the standard for public sector Web sites - inter-, extra-, and intranets - will be to meet W3C Priority 2. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2004) is currently in Committee, and Royal Assent is expected in the Spring of 2005. Once passed, it will set in motion a series of regulations, best practices and generally accepted standards that will put Ontario's public sector Web sites at the forefront in terms of Web site accessibility.  The Canadian Federal Government, although it recommends certain standards, has been less forceful in its implementation. The concepts for accessibility that are put forward by the Federal CIO can be found at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf-nsi/inter/inter-01-00_e.asp.

In the US, all federal agencies must comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which follows, for the most part, similar standards and expectations as the W3C guidelines. The Section 508 Web site provides great detail on the legal implications and practical implementation of Section 508. State governments have varying regulations and standards for Web accessibility.

Private sector organizations are not regulated with respect to Web accessibility at this time. Best practices and social mores, combined with good business, set the trends for Web accessibility. It's to be hoped that voluntary compliance and leadership will keep it that way. Content Management System developers, such as Hot Banana Software Inc., are building accessibility features into their solutions. As a site owner or administrator, these features will help your organization achieve compliance and succeed in communicating with your audiences, regardless of their disability.

So next time you're going to the theatre, think about denying someone their rightful access to that parking space. And next time you're crafting a Web page, think about the same thing!

In conclusion, Hot Banana Software Inc. practices full Web accessibility standards on the Web sites we design.  We want to ensure that all Web site users are treated equally, so our design team creates Web sites to help those users with special needs such as screen readers and text-only browsers.  Hot Banana supports the World Wide Web Consortium's Web accessibility standards, with three levels of compliance. We can design sites that are either W3C Priority 1, 2 or 3-compliant, depending on the level of accessibility Web sites require.  If need be, Hot Banana will also abide by Section 508, the U.S. legislation enforcing a base level of accessibility to Web-based resources.

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