Website Task Force: Accessibility

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

-- Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web

• Visual disabilities: Difficulty accessing unlabeled graphics, icons, buttons, multimedia. Info may be lost in poorly marked up tables, forms and frames. May use keyboard navigation rather than a mouse. Use screen enlargement, screen readers or Braille displays. Problems with font sizes, color contrast or other display problems.

• Hearing disabilities: Need captioning for audio and video.

• Physical disabilities: May need to substitute mouse use with keyboard, voice input, or other input methods.

• Cognitive disabilities: Need consistent navigation structure. Overly complex presentation can be a problem. Flickering or strobing designs can be a problem.

• Technology or bandwidth challenged: May have older browsers or computers, may have a dialup connection. Large files or those requiring special plugins may be a problem.

Source: http://web.mit.edu/atic/www/accessibility/guidelines.html