Accessibility issues too important to ignore.The economy, war, the economy, security patches, the economy, natural and unnatural disasters, the economy, SARS—there are dozens of reasons why Web accessibility may not be high on organizations' priority lists right now (did we mention the economy?), but the issue should at least be on IT managers' radar.
Analysts estimate that 10 percent of the population has some kind of physical challenge, and that percentage is expected to increase in the next 10 years as the population ages.
At issue most often with Web accessibility is vision impairment. Software applications such as Freedom Scientific's Jaws use speech synthesis and PC sound cards to "read" site content to users. The software is no James Earl Jones, but it allows blind and other sight-impaired users access to content that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
Problems arise when, for example, graphics and images don't have associated alternative text, or colors are used to convey meaning. People with hearing, mobility and cognitive challenges may also require that Web content be coded to meet their needs—for example, associating a text transcript with audio files for hearing-impaired users.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Web Access for All
