What is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web. More specifically, web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web, and that they can contribute to the web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. Millions of people have disabilities that affect their use of the web. Currently most web sites and web software have accessibility barriers that make it difficult or impossible for many people with disabilities to use the web. As more accessible web sites and software become available, people with disabilities are able to use and contribute to the web more effectively.

Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities. For example, a key principle of web accessibility is designing web sites and software that are flexible to meet different user needs, preferences, and situations. This flexibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, such as people using a slow Internet connection, people with "temporary disabilities" such as a broken arm, and people with changing abilities due to aging.

Source: W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php)

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has developed guidelines and techniques that describe accessibility solutions for web software and web developers. Please refer to http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ for the original Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 document, which is the last version of WCAG documents. (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 was approved in December 2008 and is the stable and referenceable version.)

Resources on Web Accessibility:

• Accessibility: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/support/Training/Online/webdesign/accessibility.html
• Accessible Web Design: http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/web-design.html
• Designing More Usable Web Sites: http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/index.html
• IBM Systems Journal | Vol. 44, No. 3, 2005 - Accessibility: http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/journal/sj44-3.html
• Kamu Kurumları İnternet Sitesi Kılavuzu (Sürüm 1.0): http://rega.basbakanlik.gov.tr/eskiler/2007/01/20070127-7-1.doc [547K .doc file, in Turkish]
• Presentation of Kamu Kurumları İnternet Sitesi Kılavuzu by CC-IG [255K .pdf file, in Turkish]

Web Accessibility Control Tools:

• W3C Complete List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/complete