Accessibility, the Good News
The general awareness of online accessibility issues has come along way in the past decade- from the isolated protests of a small group of zealots to an almost essential aspect of good web design. Why the change? It wasn’t the legal requirements of ADA or Section 508, nor the wealth of resources on the topic spewed forth by a variety of organizations. No doubt these voices have been influential, but accessibility is where it is today primarily because of:
- Evolving standards and technologies that require a return to the separation of content from presentation and
- An explosion of consumer devices with the same requirements for information access as many assistive technologies
While a few developers were able to see the advantages to making their content accessible to everyone early on, the majority will only to do so under financial, technology and peer pressure. Already, there are many leaders in the web design community who are championing the benefits of designing content that is accessible to everyone.
Will these pressures eventually solve all access problems? No, but they have us headed in the right direction faster than ever before, and that is good news for accessibility.
In the UK I reckon the following factors have been significant for the change in profile of accessibility:
– the 1995 DDA
– the active pursuit of high accessibility standards by the RNIB and other pioneering organisations like the Employers Forum on Disability and the Disability Rights Commission
– awareness by a growing number of web developers that accessibility is a vital, moral and even legal aspect of their business offering
– inspired clients who commission accessible sites as part of their corporate responsibility strategy.
Matt,
Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you, although I am not as familiar with accessibility laws in the UK, I read over a brief article on your site and would agree with all of your comments made above as being factors.
I apreciated your choice of words in describing some of the motivations behind accessible web design, ‘vital’, ‘moral’ and ‘inspired.’ Hopefully more and more developers are making the extra effort to make their content accessible for these reasons. However, I would tend to go with a somewhat more pessimistic view that outside of a small community, the majority of accessible web design is driven primarily by profit, evolving standards and professional development/credibility.
heh, A fast-spreading mutant strain of syphilis has proved resistant to the antibiotic pills that are offered to some patients. The increase in the mutant strain was largely among gay or bisexual men with multiple partners.