the NOAA disability page--make your web pages usable by everyone
The night is warm and dark clouds race across a full moon. The breeze is
blowing in fitful gusts from the northeast and you have heard that a hurricane
is approaching your area. So you decide to cruise the web for the latest
information. You click on what looks like the page you want and see the
following:
SELECT FROM THE CHOICES
BELOW:
[IMAGE] [IMAGE]
[IMAGE] [IMAGE]
[IMAGE] [IMAGE]
[IMAGE]
[IMAGE]
Unless you have used a text-only browser before you may think this is some sort
of code devised by the Sentinel, the enigmatic alien machine in "2001: a Space
Odyssey". What it really is of course, is inaccessible HTML to anyone unable to
read graphics. The goal here is to write "good" HTML that anyone can use without
degrading the quality of your pages.
Section 508 regulations now determine how United States
government web pages are to be written.
Here is a list of different guidelines on how to make your web
sites accessible, including the latest from the "web access initiative" of
the W3C. Please note that at this writing the W3C standards for web
accessibility and Section508 are not the same thing.
Though accessing the web is not normally a problem for
the hearing impaired, (except for spoken real audio without any accompanying
text) deaf individuals face other challenges.
Unlike many browsers designed specifically for the blind, this one
requires an existing screen reader on the pc. It offers easy access to
many features of particular interest to the visually impaired such as radio
broadcasts and podcasts.
This page was last updated on May 29, 2009.
This page was last reviewed on May 29, 2009.