What is accessibility?
Accessibility on the Internet refers to, the ability for people with disabilities to access information on the world wide web as easily as people without disabilities. Simply put people with disabilities should be able to access the content of websites as easily as those without.
What state is the Internet in now?
According to "The Web Access and Inclusion for Disabled People", a report by the Disability Rights Commission in 2004 "81% of websites in the UK do not meet the most basic legal requirements for compliance with the uk disability discrimination act (DDA)." This is an alarming fact considering that 20% of the Uk's working population have disabilities. Meaning that to almost 7 million people only 19% of the internet is accessible. This is not only an ethical and legal issue, as disabled people are believed to have a spending power of £40 - £50 Billion a year.
It's the law!
In the UK the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) makes reference to areas which affect the internet, the most relevant ones are listed below 2.2 (p7): "The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public." 4.7 (p39): "From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services." 2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13): "What services are affected by the Disability Discrimination Act? An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the 5.23 (p71): "For people with visual impairments, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites." 5.26 (p68): "For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites."
The service provisions of this act came into force on the 1st of October 2004, were service providers must make sure their service is not unreasonably difficult for disabled people. This means at this moment in time any Webmaster who is supplying information or a service must make sure it is accessible to people with disabilities, otherwise they are in breach of the law.
There have already been examples of this being enforced in other countries, for example in Australia in June 1999, Bruce Maguire sued the Olympic website for the Sydney games AU$20,000 as their website did not offer an acceptable level of usability. More on this lawsuite.
What are their needs?
Disabled people typically need to overcome barriers before they can enjoy the possibilities the Internet has to offer. Blind people tend to use screen readers to turn the content of a webpage into an audible format, however objects such as images need to be given alternative text in order for them to be conveyed sufficiently.
Partially sighted people may rely on the ability to increase the text size or easily contrastable text and background colors. People with manual dexterity impairments may require navigation that is easy to use with a keyboard. There are many other examples of problems that disabled people face, and as a consequence guide lines have been set up by a number of organizations to aid developers in catering for them.
Guidelines and help.
In 1998 there was an amendment to the USA's Rehabilitation Act, Section 508, this has provided an incentive for many to comply with the guidelines since they state, all federal agencies must ensure that their electronic and information technology is accessible to disabled people whenever those agencies develop, procure, maintain or use such technology.
In 1999 the W3C developed the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to publish Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. These are set into categories of priorities 1-3 with conformance levels of A, AA and AAA respectively. (More about the WAI guidelines). The Euro Accessibility Consortium has also launched an initiative with the W3C to develop a set of harmonized procedures for testing accessibility.
What is being done?
Reading from domestic studies it is evident that not enough is being done to make web services more accessible. In 2000 The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), released a report of 17 websites, which concluded that the performance of many high street stores and banks was "extremely disappointing". The University of Bath released a report on 2002 researching into the level of compliance by United Kingdom universities with web guidelines, finding them to be "disappointing". Government websites have also been found in need of development in one area or another, regarding their accessibility.
The formal investigation conducted by the Disability Rights Commission, concluded sixteen recommendations that can be found in their report. You can get a copy of the report from here