SAMSA Reaches out for Accessibility

Experiencing emotions of confusion because you don't know how to navigate a web site or becoming frustrated when you are taken off track while trying to navigate the web happens to us all from time to time, but this is a constant, chronically frustrating situation for those with disabilities.

For this reason, Internet Accessibility has become a widely discussed topic and has made progress in legislation. In 1999, Section 508 was added to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law for people with disabilities, which expanded its scope of providing accessibility to include federally owned or funded websites. The reason for this expansion is clear. Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee states, "Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

Information available on the Internet must be visible (easy to find), accessible (easy to use), and usable (easy to understand). An accessible web site entails an array of characteristics. Web accessibility includes web sites and applications that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with. To begin with, page organization that is clear, consistent in structure, and easily navigable is crucial. The Web Accessibility Initiative offers quick tips for developers that includes but is not limited to:

• Use the Alt attribute to describe the function of each image or animation
  
• Provide captioning and transcripts of audio and descriptions of video
  
• In regards to hypertext links, use text that makes sense when read out of context
  
• Provide alternative content in case active features such as scripts, applets, and plug-ins are inaccessible or unsupported

It takes a lot of effort and time to learn the guidelines of accessibility and how to implement them. If your business is unsure about implementing the guidelines itself or is lacking the internal resources to do so, a highly sought choice is to hire an accessibility expert to reconstruct your existing site. Though money must be spent, the benefits reaped by doing so are incalculable. A company that is socially responsible is highly regarded in the community. The truth is, people with disabilities aren't the largest segment of population but accessibility benefits more people than those who are deaf, mentally impaired, dyslexic, motion impaired, or have low or no vision, combined. Research has shown that most of the population will need extra accessibility to web sites at some point in our lives, so why not make your site accessible for those who need that extra assistance right now.

Web developers and designers have a duty to educate clients on the importance of accessibility, and SAMSA is firmly committed to this responsibility.

The Internet has an astonishing potential for users with disabilities. With it, a blind person can use a screen reader to easily look up information for a work or school report; a deaf person can quickly access transcripts of an important speaker; a paralyzed person can take college classes and your elderly father or grandfather can write you an email from his recliner. To live up to its potential, the Internet must be as its founder intended - accessible to all.

Government mandated guidelines and information as made by the Web Accessibility Initiative can be found at http://www.w3c.org/WAI

SAMSA can help improve your website accessibility. For more information visit http://www.samsa.com/internet/accessible.html