Is Your Site Accessible?

Target’s web site doesn’t look that much different from many others, yet it is the target of a lawsuit because it failed to make its site accessible to the blind.

This lead to a ruling a few days ago clearly stating that web sites are subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This may just be the tip of the iceberg. I ask: if you turn off scripts and images, is your CU’s site usable? Can you log in to online banking?

Now is a good time to start thinking about accessibility. By adhering to a few simple standards your site can be accessible:

• Valid XHTML is a good start. It’s a standard for the markup of web pages. It ensures compatibility between different browsers and platforms. Many sites using valid XHTML proudly display some sort of icon like this one, but they don’t need it to.
• The Web Accessibility Initiative has several compliance levels with their accessibility standards. They ask you to consider, among other things, colors and contrast for those who cannot see color, textual descriptions of images, clarification of acronyms and abbreviations, and providing clear navigation.

I mention these because recent events show that creating standards compliant, accessible web pages is not something only web developers need to be concerned with. Furthermore, accessibility is not difficult to distinguish; you don’t have to know how to make web pages to see if a web site is WAI compliant.

Accessible web pages also rank higher on Google’s new Accessible Search.

The web is beginning to converge on standards, but it’s not there yet. The important thing is that there are standards, and that raising awareness and making them a priority is a great way to help see them widely implemented.