What It Means To Have An Accessible Website
What does it mean to have an accessible website? Basically, it means that it must be available to EVERYONE. Your website must be available to access by the elderly, the blind or vision impaired, the hearing imparied, people who can't use a mouse...the list goes on and on and on.
You may wonder why your website needs to be accessible. Well, number 1, it's the right thing to do. Also, in many cases it's the law. There are many guidelines or rules when it comes to accessible websites. Those include Section 508 and WCAG. We'll give you all the details on those in a little bit. But first why don't I do a little question and answer session. This is going to be fun!
Ready? Here we go!
Q: Do I have to make my website accessible?
A: What kind of question is that? Alright, alright...let me answer that for you. Well first off, it's the right thing to do. If you fall under various groups (like federal agencies) you are required by law to have your websites accessible to everyone.
Q: Does it cost to add accessibility features to my website?
A: If you want to add accessibility features to your current website, it will probably cost you a bit of money in web developing fees. But you may see that money coming back to you in the long term. If you don't have a website and are looking to develop one with accessibility features at that time, it probably will cost you little to nothing at all, especially if you pick a pretty cool web designer like myself.
Q: What if my target audience doesn't include people who are vision or hearing impaired? Should I still add those accessibilty features?
A: Are you paying attention? Refer to question number one for your answer.
Q: Who benefits from having an accessible website?
A: Everyone benefits! You benefit, your customer benefits and maybe his or her cat Fluffy benefits. Well maybe not, but you get the idea.
Now that we have your important questions answered. It's time to talk about Section 508 and WCAG.
Section 508
Section 508 was original added to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in 1986 and has nothing to do with The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The original Section 508 wasn't enforced and so it was replaced by the current Section 508 laws in 1998. Section 508 requires all federal agencies or companies recieving federal funds to have accessible websites and other electronic media. Private websites do not have to comply, although there are many that do. Section 508 includes technical standards that deal with being accessible to the visually impaired and/or hearing impaired. It also requires websites to have accessibility features for alternate input devices, such as a keyboard in the event that the user cannot use the mouse. Kiosks, ATMs, printers and other electronic devices must have accessiblity features built into them.
For more information on Section 508, you can visit http://www.section508.gov/.
Web Accessibility Content Guidelines (WCAG)
WCAG is a set of guidelines recommended by the W3C. The goal is to make content accessible, not only for disabled users, but also users of mobile phones. There are two versions of WCAG. They are 1.0 and 2.0. The two are simliar, but in WCAG 2.0, the W3C has updated and redefined the rules.
The three levels of WCAG 1.0 are as follows:
- Priority 1: Web developers must satisfy these requirements.
- Priority 2: Web developers should satisfy these requirements.
- Priority 3: Web developers may satisfy these requirements.
For more information on WCAG, you can visit http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.
Well that's a little bit about web accessibilty and what it means. You are encouraged to enter "Web Accessibilty" in your favorite search engine and review all there is to offer. There is a ton of information available that I wasn't able to cover, but I hope this covers the basics and answers a few questions that you might have had.
Please review my other pages and examples to learn more about web accessibility.