Web Accessibility Matters
December 10th, 2005 by Jeff LouellaI find it more astonishing every day that corporate America seems to overlook the simple fact that access to their web site does matter. Sure your web site might LOOK great in IE or Firefox, but how does it sound in screen reader? Does your web site’s design allow for the text to be increased by 4 or 5 points to accommodate people with impaired vision? How does your site look to the 10% of men with some sort of color blindness?
The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law in 1990, brought some guidelines to our corporations such as:
- Curb Ramps
- Handicapped Parking
- Handicapped Bathroom Stalls
- Audible and Visual Alarms
- Raised and Brailed Characters and Pictorial Symbol Signs.
Laws like these are slowly becoming mandatory on the web. The US Government amended the ADA in 1998 by adding Section 508 Guidelines for accessibility on the web. All US Government sites must abide by these laws. Unfortunately, many governement sites still fail Section 508 testing.
Eventually our government will come to its senses and enforce these policies. Sadly, it will take a lawsuit or two to make corporations realize they need to make their sites accessible.
Though this site may not be the hallmark of accessibility, it does pass Section 508 and WAI Level 2 (at least as of this writing). It is my goal to add as many features as possible to this site to help out our disabled users.