NEWS: HWG: April is Accessibility Month

[janet paterson <janet313@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>                        HTML Writers Guild Newsletter
>                      Volume 6 Number 8, 22 April 2000
>                             
>                            
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>2.  April is Accessibility Month
>    (Kynn Bartlett, Director, AWARE Center, aware@xxxxxxx)
>
>April 2000 has been designated as the Guild's third annual Web
>Accessibility Month, a month-long focus on the very important
>issue of web accessibility!
>
>By "accessible", we mean a web site that can be used by everyone,
>regardless of disability.  Unfortunately, many web pages being
>created are not accessible, because they have unnecessary,
>artificial barriers to access -- cutting out parts of their own
>audience!
>
>Accessibility problems are very common and present major
>obstacles to a number of web users.  For example, images that
>are not labeled with the ALT attribute cannot be understood by
>the screenreaders often used by blind computer users.  Deaf
>users cannot understand the sound tracks of multimedia files,
>unless transcripts are provided.  Users with dexterity or
>mobility disabilities may not be able to use a mouse or
>keyboard to access a site.
>
>In order to make an accessible web site, web authors need to
>have an understanding of "non-standard access methods" -- in
>other words, more than just the latest version of Netscape or
>Internet Explorer running on a desktop or laptop.  The techniques
>that provide access for people with disabilities can also make
>a web site usable by people with mobile access devices such as
>cell phones or PDAs; by users connecting via web appliances
>such as WebTV; and by users who have older hardware and
>software.
>
>The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) -- the industry organization
>that crafts the standards for the web, such as HTML, CSS, and XML
>-- created the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in 1997 to
>define the techniques necessary to produce accessible web sites.
>The HTML Writers Guild, the only organization of web designers
>that holds membership in the W3C, has been an active participant
>in WAI activities.  Some important WAI milestones include the
>issuance of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in May of
>1999, and the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines in February
>2000.  (Under development now are accessibility guidelines for
>browsers and other user agents.)
>
>As part of last year's Accessibility Month, the HTML Writers
>Guild established the Accessible Web Authoring Resources and
>Education (AWARE) Center as a resource center for web designers
>who want to learn more about web accessibility.  The Guild
>invites you to become AWARE of web accessibility this April
>by visiting:
>
>      
>
>
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janet paterson
53 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
a new voice: 
613 256 8340 PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario Canada K0A 1A0