The World Wide Web Consortium’s WAI or Web Accessibility Initiative is an effort to boost World Wide Web’s accessibility for persons with disabilities. In general, disabled persons could encounter hardships when using computers, as well as on the web. Since persons with disabilities usually need non-standard browsers and devices, it is essential to make a website more accessible as well as benefits a huge range of devices and user agents, such as mobile devices that have limited resources.
WEB ACCESSIBILITY INITIATIVE LAUNCH
W3C launched the WAI in 1997 with The White House and W3C members’ endorsement. It has working groups as well as interest groups working on technical reports, guidelines, education materials and other documents which relate to the different components of web accessibility. The components include web browsers, content, media player, evaluation tools and evaluation tools. WAI develops guidelines as well as other reports via the same process as otherW3C parts. The same as other W3C initiatives, WAI consists of a number of working groups and special interest groups with their own focus.
AUTHORING TOOL ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES WORKING GROUP
The Authoring Tools Accessibility Guideline Working Group creates techniques, guidelines and supporting resources for tools that build web content, which range from desktop HTML editors to content management systems. There are two types of accessibility requirements, which is the user interface on one hand and content produced by the tool on the other.
MAKING THE INTERNET MORE ACCESSIBLE TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITY
Web Accessibility Initiative seeks to make the internet more accessible to persons with cognitive, auditory, physical, neurological, visual and speech impairments. This is hugely accomplished via what the organizations considers ‘inclusive design’. The inclusive design includes features such as the following:
1. Presenting similar content in various ways.
2. Providing text options for non-text content.
3. Designing pages so content would appear and operate in predictable ways.
4. Making certain that content is easy to hear and see.
There are numerous reasons why people could be experiencing different degrees of cognitive, auditory, physical, and neurological, speech and visual disabilities. For example, some people may have disabilities from birth, from a disease, illness, accident or develop impairments with age. Some may not consider themselves to have impairments even if they indeed experience such functional limitations.
DIVERSITY OF ABILITIES
AUDITORY
Auditory disabilities could range from mild or moderate hearing problems in one or in both ears, to uncorrectable and substantial hearing impairment in both ears. Some who have auditory disabilities could hear sounds, but at times not sufficiently to comprehend all speech, particularly when there’s background noise. This includes those who use hearing aids or others to enhance sound.
NEUROLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE
Neurological and cognitive disabilities include disorders of any part of the nervous system, such as the peripheral nervous system and the brain. This impacts how well people move, hear, speak, see and comprehend information. Neurological and cognitive disabilities don’t necessarily affect a person’s intelligence.
SPEECH
Speech impairment include difficulty in producing speech that’s recognizable by others or through a voice recognition software. For example, the clarity or loudness of someone’s voice could be hard to understand.
PHYSICAL
Physical disabilities or sometimes called motor disabilities include limitations of muscular control, like involuntary movements such as lack of coordination, tremors or paralysis, weakness, sensation limitations, joint issues like arthritis, missing limbs or pain that impedes movement.
VISUAL
Visual impairments could range from mild or moderate vision disabilities in one or both eyes, to uncorrectable vision loss in both eyes. Some have reduced or lack of sensitivity to certain colors or what is called as color blindness, or increased sensitivity to excessive color brightness. The variations in colors and brightness perceptions could be independent of the visual acuity.
THE RELEVANCE OF WEB ACCESSIBILITY
Increasingly, the web is an important resource in various aspects of life, such as employment, education, commerce, government, recreation, health care and more. It is paramount that the web should be accessible to provide equal opportunity and access to people with disabilities. The web could also help disabled persons to participate in society more actively. The web offers the possibility of unprecedented information access and interaction for a lot of people with impairments. Accessibility barriers to audio, print and visual media could be overcome more easily via web technologies. Making a website accessible to disabled persons is paramount. It is important to use good quality content. The site should be written in understandable, clear sentences. This helps able bodied and disabled users alike. Most sites use interactive elements and scripts. Even something simple such as an email form must be tested thoroughly. Make sure fields are labelled and the error messages make sense.
It is without doubt that the web should be a more-friendly place for people with disabilities. That is why the WAI is very important to make the web more accessible to different kinds of people.
WEB ACCESSIBILITY INITIATIVE LAUNCH
W3C launched the WAI in 1997 with The White House and W3C members’ endorsement. It has working groups as well as interest groups working on technical reports, guidelines, education materials and other documents which relate to the different components of web accessibility. The components include web browsers, content, media player, evaluation tools and evaluation tools. WAI develops guidelines as well as other reports via the same process as otherW3C parts. The same as other W3C initiatives, WAI consists of a number of working groups and special interest groups with their own focus.
AUTHORING TOOL ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES WORKING GROUP
The Authoring Tools Accessibility Guideline Working Group creates techniques, guidelines and supporting resources for tools that build web content, which range from desktop HTML editors to content management systems. There are two types of accessibility requirements, which is the user interface on one hand and content produced by the tool on the other.
MAKING THE INTERNET MORE ACCESSIBLE TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITY
Web Accessibility Initiative seeks to make the internet more accessible to persons with cognitive, auditory, physical, neurological, visual and speech impairments. This is hugely accomplished via what the organizations considers ‘inclusive design’. The inclusive design includes features such as the following:
1. Presenting similar content in various ways.
2. Providing text options for non-text content.
3. Designing pages so content would appear and operate in predictable ways.
4. Making certain that content is easy to hear and see.
There are numerous reasons why people could be experiencing different degrees of cognitive, auditory, physical, and neurological, speech and visual disabilities. For example, some people may have disabilities from birth, from a disease, illness, accident or develop impairments with age. Some may not consider themselves to have impairments even if they indeed experience such functional limitations.
DIVERSITY OF ABILITIES
AUDITORY
Auditory disabilities could range from mild or moderate hearing problems in one or in both ears, to uncorrectable and substantial hearing impairment in both ears. Some who have auditory disabilities could hear sounds, but at times not sufficiently to comprehend all speech, particularly when there’s background noise. This includes those who use hearing aids or others to enhance sound.
NEUROLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE
Neurological and cognitive disabilities include disorders of any part of the nervous system, such as the peripheral nervous system and the brain. This impacts how well people move, hear, speak, see and comprehend information. Neurological and cognitive disabilities don’t necessarily affect a person’s intelligence.
SPEECH
Speech impairment include difficulty in producing speech that’s recognizable by others or through a voice recognition software. For example, the clarity or loudness of someone’s voice could be hard to understand.
PHYSICAL
Physical disabilities or sometimes called motor disabilities include limitations of muscular control, like involuntary movements such as lack of coordination, tremors or paralysis, weakness, sensation limitations, joint issues like arthritis, missing limbs or pain that impedes movement.
VISUAL
Visual impairments could range from mild or moderate vision disabilities in one or both eyes, to uncorrectable vision loss in both eyes. Some have reduced or lack of sensitivity to certain colors or what is called as color blindness, or increased sensitivity to excessive color brightness. The variations in colors and brightness perceptions could be independent of the visual acuity.
THE RELEVANCE OF WEB ACCESSIBILITY
Increasingly, the web is an important resource in various aspects of life, such as employment, education, commerce, government, recreation, health care and more. It is paramount that the web should be accessible to provide equal opportunity and access to people with disabilities. The web could also help disabled persons to participate in society more actively. The web offers the possibility of unprecedented information access and interaction for a lot of people with impairments. Accessibility barriers to audio, print and visual media could be overcome more easily via web technologies. Making a website accessible to disabled persons is paramount. It is important to use good quality content. The site should be written in understandable, clear sentences. This helps able bodied and disabled users alike. Most sites use interactive elements and scripts. Even something simple such as an email form must be tested thoroughly. Make sure fields are labelled and the error messages make sense.
It is without doubt that the web should be a more-friendly place for people with disabilities. That is why the WAI is very important to make the web more accessible to different kinds of people.
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