Keeping your Web Site Accessible

A Web page can be described as accessible if it can be used by:

• users with physical disabilities, including those with visual or motor disabilities.
• users with a variety of software and hardware, including those using slow modems or text-based browsers.

If your Web site is inaccessible, you are unnecessarily limiting the size and scope of your audience. Many Web authors fail to make their sites accessible because they think it will cost too much in terms of time and money. However, while it can be very costly to convert an inaccessible site to an accessible one, there is very little extra cost in building accessibility into a site from scratch.

Some believe that creating an accessible Web site means catering to the "lowest common denominator", avoiding the use of features that are not supported by older or text-based browsers or cannot be read by assistive technology such as screen readers. However, accessible pages do not have to be dull and backward-looking. You can use your creative talents to provide colour, video, sound, Java applets and other bells and whistles; the key is to provide alternatives for users who cannot access these features.

Much of the impetus behind the drive for accessibility has come from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which launched its Web Accessibility Initiative in October 1993. This initiative aims to promote "a high degree of usability for people with disabilities". W3C coordinates with many organizations to produce Web content guidelines for accessible Web sites, browsers, and authoring tools.