While some see meeting the online needs of disabled people as a ‘ruinous obligation’, businesses would do well to accommodate the ‘blue pound’

Gus Alexiou
Thursday 20 November 2014 14.45 GMT

In an era when the web is becoming ubiquitous, the implications of being on the wrong side of the digital divide seem graver than ever. Website accessibility expert Professor Jonathan Hassell’s new book on digital inclusion, launched this month, calls for a shift in the thinking of organisations over what has often been regarded as a somewhat burdensome and thorny issue.

By: Robin Christopherson, Head of Digital Inclusion at disability and e-Accessibility charity, AbilityNet
Published: Thursday, July 11, 2013

Building in awareness is the only way to ensure web accessibility continues to go, writes Robin Christopherson of charity, AbilityNet, which promotes the inclusion of disabled people on the web.

15 October 2012

Today the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Joint Technical Committee JTC 1, Information Technology of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), announced approval of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 as an ISO/IEC International Standard (ISO/IEC 40500:2012).

Originally written 28th November 2011 by Léonie Watson

Links are like sign posts. They should tell you what you’ll find when you follow them. Writing good link text isn’t difficult, but there are a few things to be aware of when you do.

By Wayne Dick
July 5, 2011

Most people lump blindness and visual impairment into one group. This is a mistake that does serious harm to many people who have low vision but are not blind. Well meaning people cite accommodations for people who are blind as examples of things that work for all people who are blind or visually impaired. Even experts do this too. This includes many advocacy groups, national, regional and local governments, institutions and even the W3C WCAG Working Group.

By Geof Collis

Now that the Integrated Accessibility Standards (IAS) are Law it is time to start implementing an often overlooked aspect of Web Accessibility, Captioning and Describing Web Video.

The good folks at Inclusive Media & Design, Inc. have compiled some Tips for you to consider and also have the solution for implementation.

Available accessibility guidelines do not necessarily guarantee usable Web sites, particularly when specific groups of users with special needs are considered.

When browser vendors bend the standards and implement something in a different way than what the specification states, they may cause problems, or at least confusion. One example of this is the way certain browsers, the most widely used being Internet Explorer for Windows, handle alt attributes (popularly
and incorrectly referred to as “alt tags”).