Web Access for Everyone

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), established in 1990, has shaped how we all do business. The act states that people with physical or mental impairment may not be denied to participate and benefit from public accommodations. We're used to seeing wheelchair ramps or elevators available for multi-floor buildings, braille provided on bank ATMs, closed captioning capabilities on televisions, and parking lots with designated handicap spaces.

The ADA's requirements ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation and requires the establishment of TDD/telephone relay services. All businesses have to comply with the ADA. It's a Federal offense to refuse to comply.

So why have businesses overlooked the needs of their Web customers?

Over 15% of all U.S. residents has some disability such as blindness, partial eyesight, color blindness, deafness, and those who have limited use of extremities and can only use the keyboard or use voice commands. To navigate the Web, a disabled surfer needs assistive technologies such as a screen reader, a software utility that reads Web pages audibly. But Web pages must follow programming and design guidelines in order to be read by screen readers, and few businesses have ever followed accessibility guidelines, much less heard about them.

In 1997, The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international collective to develop technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential, established the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The initiative was set up to develop and improve the international standard of design and programming guidelines to increase accessibility.

And in 1998, Congress amended the federal Rehabilitation Act to require U.S. agencies, government contractors and others receiving federal money to make electronic and IT services accessible to people with disabilities and to develop those services along such thirteen guidelines are known as "Section 508". Because of Section 508, all U.S. government-related Web sites are currently Web accessible.

In October of 2002, Southwest Airlines was sued by Access Now, a Florida not-for-profit corporation and advocate for the disabled community, and by Robert Gumson, a blind individual who had difficulty using Southwest's Web site to make travel plans. Access Now claimed that Southwest's site was not accessible to people with disabilities, and that the site had not been programmed with alternative text that would work with a screen reader, thus denying Gumson full access. Although a judge ruled in the favor of Southwest Airlines, it was not a good source of positive publicity for the company.

As Web designers and developers learn more about the importance and how to implement Web accessibility, they can help companies better in educating and preparing their clients' Web sites. The goal to make any Web site accessible is currently a self-guided initiative, until additional legislation is created to enforce accessibility standards across all business Web sites created in the U.S.

The advantage for increasing accessibility on your site are many. Not only do you increase your reach to disabled users with assistive technologies, but customers experience faster download times, bandwidth savings, higher search engine rankings, easier Web site management and cross-browser compatibility.

An accessible Web site also becomes "forward compatible", meaning the programming increases readership with current technologies such as PDAs, mobile devices, Web TVs, and future versions of Web browsers which are scheduled to follow accessible standards in translating code. There will be no need to reprogram your site every few years to adjust it to new browsers.

The biggest benefit for increasing Web accessibility is that it allows your Web site to reach everyone, not just disabled users.

Rachel Elnar began her 15-year design career shortly before receiving her MFA from California State Fullerton University. Currently, she's a partner at Ramp Creative in downtown Los Angeles, where she collaborates with clients to help them launch brands, develop marketing campaigns, create annual reports and Web sites. She has taught interactive and motion design at Cal Poly Pomona and Art Center College of Design.