"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." -- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and Inventor of the World Wide Web

The most recent worldwide estimates say that there are as many as 500 million people with some form of a disability. Based on 1996 world population estimates, approximately 45 million people are blind and 135 million people have low vision. It is also estimated that 7 million people become blind each year, which puts the 1996 figure of 45 million to be 73 million for 2001. (World Health Organization)

US Statistics

While it is difficult to calculate precisely the number of people impacted by inaccessible computer and software design, statistics from the 2000 U.S. census showed that there were 49.7 million people with disabilities in the United States alone. Lighthouse International estimates that almost nine million people in the U.S. have severe visual impairments and a much larger number have minor vision problems.

What if you had an opportunity to tap into a customer base that had some 500 million folks in it? What if you were able to, simply by making your Web offerings completely available to all your site visitors, not only increase your revenue, branding, and customer acquisition, but more importantly provide Web accessibility and the unbelievable joy and freedom of hitching a ride on the Information superhighway called the “Internet.” Can you design your Web site to be accessible by all? How does one change Web design to Universal design? And will Web designers some day be required by law to design each page according to “universal” design.

Universal Design 

What does “universal design” mean? NC State's nationally recognized Center for Universal Design provides the following definition of universal design: "Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. The intent of universal design is to simplify life for everyone by making products, communications, and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost. Universal design benefits people of all ages and abilities."

In New York in late August, Attorney General Elliot Spitzer settled with Ramada.com and Priceline.com under the Americans with Disabilities Act. As part of the settlement, the Web sites agreed to implement a variety of accessibility standards that will permit users of assistive technology, such as screen reader software, to more easily navigate these Web sites.

"Accessible Web sites are the wave of the future and the right thing to do. We applaud these companies for taking responsible and proper steps to make their Web sites accessible to the blind and visually impaired," Spitzer said. "We urge all companies who have not done so to follow their lead."

The Attorney General opined that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires that private Web sites be accessible to blind and visually impaired Internet users. The ADA generally dictates that all "places of public accommodation" and all "goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations" of places of public accommodation, must be made accessible to disabled citizens, absent undue hardship. New York law provides similar civil rights protections.

Many blind and visually impaired individuals use assistive technology, such as "screen reader software," to operate computers and surf the Internet. Screen reader software converts text into speech and reads pages upon display -- usually from top to bottom and left to right, as if reading a book. To be accessible to the blind and visually impaired for instance, a Web site must utilize a computer code that is comprehensible to screen reader software.

During investigations conducted in 2003 and earlier this year, the Attorney General found that portions of the Ramada.com and Priceline.com web sites were not accessible to this type of assistive technology.

Carl Augusto, president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) said, "As the Internet continues to become an increasingly important tool for business, commerce, and leisure activities, it is imperative that all companies ensure their web sites are accessible for all users – including people who are blind or have low vision."

This is where Berners-Lee and the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 come in. The W3C guidelines are an integral and methodical guide to designers intent on making their Web site accessible by all. Here is the index of the guidelines to start as a good “guideline” for Webmasters to adopt each time they design or re-design a new Web site.

* Principle 1: Content must be perceivable.

Guideline 1.1 Provide text alternatives for all non-text content.

Guideline 1.2 Provide synchronized media equivalents for time-dependent presentations.

Guideline 1.3 Ensure that information, functionality, and structure are separable from presentation.

Guideline 1.4 In visual presentations, make it easy to distinguish foreground words and images from the background.

Guideline 1.5 In auditory presentations, make it easy to distinguish foreground speech and sounds from background sounds.

* Principle 2: Interface elements in the content must be operable.

Guideline 2.1 Make all functionality operable via a keyboard or a keyboard interface.

Guideline 2.2 Allow users to control time limits on their reading or interaction unless specific real-time events or rules of competition make such control impossible.

Guideline 2.3 Allow users to avoid content that could cause photosensitive epileptic seizures.

Guideline 2.4 Facilitate the ability of users to orient themselves and move within the content.

Guideline 2.5 Help users avoid mistakes and make it easy to correct them.

* Principle 3: Content and controls must be understandable.

Guideline 3.1 Ensure that the meaning of content can be determined.

Guideline 3.2 Organize content consistently from "page to page" and make interactive components behave in predictable ways.

Principle 4: Content must be robust enough to work with current and future technologies.

Guideline 4.1 Use technologies according to specification.

Guideline 4.2 Ensure that user interfaces are accessible or provide an accessible alternative(s)

Any Web designer worth their html will want to draw traffic to the site, and the more accessible the site is, the more traffic the site will generate.