Accessiblility

Accessibility on the Internet is about making sure that access to the information provided online is not restricted, and can be accessed by everyone. However, accessibility entails more than considering the needs of those with physical, hearing or visual impairments. A more accessible website can make the experience better for everyone.

Web accessibility involves using both the new and old technology. Doing this will make your site available to a more devices used to access the internet.

When doing web content it is important to consider the fact that there are people that can’t see and/or hear. So when designing a web site it is important to try and do the content so that everyone has an option on how they will see or hear the content of the pages. This can be difficult to complete.

With the help of synthesized speech and braille display technology, like Jaws and Windows-Eyes, even completely blind people can use the internet. But for these technologies to work properly, web pages must be written in correct HTML. The needs of people with poor site can vary. Some people can only read large text and others can only read small text.
So when designing a website it is important to design a flexible site.

People with a hearing impairment tend not to use assistive software to improve their web browsing; instead, they rely on the website being accessible by providing any audio content in alternative formats, such as captioning or transcripts.
When it comes to standards that should be used when designing an accessible website, those can be found on a number of sites. Information on the standards that should be followed can be accessed at WC3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 , Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - home page , Wikipedia:Accessibility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Another site that I found interesting is Index of Government Guidelines for Web Sites- Standards Schmandards .
It is important to try and conform to these standards so that the sites that are designed are able to be viewed by everyone.

There are a number of tools that can be used to help design an accessible website. For the hearing impaired a list of tools can be found at 100 Web Tools for Learning with a Disability - College Degree.com .

I believe that it is important to make sure that you do the best you can to design a website that is accessible to everyone. At my age I am already starting to have problems reading some of the sites that I go to online. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to be able to use the internet.