StreetWise Resource Guide – Internet Accessibility

As a primary information source, the Internet, including the World Wide Web, needs to be accessible by all people. A more accessible Web reduces the barriers for all users. During the last few years, there has been progress in achieving this goal. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) promotes the evolution and usability of the World Wide Web through the development of specifications, guidelines, software, and tools. In its most visible effort, the W3C works to enhance Web accessibility in uniform ways through the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The WAI has developed voluntary guidelines for creating accessible Web sites and browsers. For more information about the WAI, check out their site.

The accessibility of the Internet is improving every day. More and more web sites are being designed with accessibility in mind. For example, many web sites offer different access options on their home page. Text only, no graphics, or no frames options, for instance, reduce clutter. Some sites provide an entry page that lets you select whether or not you want "flash " (the animation feature) or lots of graphics. Some sites let you increase the text size. If selection options are unclear on any site, for accessibility choose the selection that indicates "less" rather than "more." You can always back up and try the other.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines from the Web Accessibility Initiative explain to web site designers how to make the content of a Web site accessible to all users. Each guideline has one or more checkpoints that are assigned a priority level of 1, 2, or 3, with 1 being the most important. For example, providing a text equivalent for every non-text element (images, symbols, animation, etc) is a priority 1 checkpoint. For a site to be classified as "accessible," a site must conform with all priority 1 checkpoints to be classified as "accessible." Sites that claim to conform to any one of the 3 levels of the guidelines may display a WAI Logo. As of December 2008, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 standard was approved and will provide better accessibility for more web content such as text, images, audio, video, and web applications.

Developed by CAST, the Bobby web accessibility software tool is used to evaluate how well a site complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Sites that reach a Bobby Approved rating may use the Bobby approved icon. There are different icons to represent the level of accessibility achieved by the site-WAI 1, 2, or 3 or U.S. Section 508.

This section of the U.S. Code requires that U.S. Federal agencies make any electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. This means that agencies must give employees and citizens who have disabilities access to information that is comparable to the access available to others. National security systems are exempted. The Section 508 web site contains resources for understanding and implementing these requirements.

Internet Explorer allows changing fonts and colors and customizing the toolbar. There are also advanced options that can be set. Microsoft provides step by step tutorials for Internet Explorer versions 6 and Internet Explorer versions 7 for making these changes.

Firefox 3 allows changing fonts, text size, and colors. Look under Tools on the Menu Bar and choose Options, then choose Content. It also allows you to zoom in on a page. Firefox is compatible with numerous assistive technology products. Keyboard shortcuts and mouse shortcuts also help simplify various functions.

AOL in version 6 and later allows you to specify typeface, size, style and color for email, instant messages and chat room and message board text. You can also select settings for the toolbar and sounds. This is all located under Settings/Preferences.

Opera has been designed with accessibility as a major goal. With Opera you can navigate a web site entirely with the keyboard. Opera also provides mouse gestures that use the mouse button to simplify certain functions such as maximizing/minimizing windows. Opera can also be controlled by your voice. You can also zoom a document. You can define fonts and colors for text, headers, links, buttons, and more. Opera is available for numerous operating systems. For more information on internte accessibility Disabled World offers some good links.

The short answer is yes. Alternative browsers have been designed for people with specific disabilities such as visual or cognitive impairments. Other browsers use adaptive technology including Chrome, Safari and more.