What is WCAG 2.0?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 defines how to make Web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Accessibility involves a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities. (Ben Caldwell)
WCAG Myths
1. Creating a text-only equivalent is sufficient
Creating a separate text-only equivalent can lead to a number of problems:
- A text-only version is not necessarily accessible
- Two versions of the same website represents a huge time and money investment for you
- Your primary site may not be accessible to many users
- An ‘extra’ accessible website for blind and disabled users can be one more way to make them feel marginalized from mainstream society
Web accessibility isn't just about blind and disabled Internet users being able to use your site - it's about
everyone being able to access it successfully. It really doesn't have to take very much time or money to make your website accessible.
2. It's complicated and expensive to make my website accessible
To develop an accessible website from scratch will cost virtually the same as to develop a website that isn't accessible. A very large, highly inaccessible website may take a bit more time and money to fix up, although the basic
layout and design usually need not change. Web accessibility is not complicated and anyone with
basic web design skills can easily implement it.
3. Blind and disabled people don't use the Internet
On the contrary, blind and disabled people benefit from the Internet perhaps more than anyone else. For example, visually impaired people have to phone up a supermarket when they want to go shopping to inform them of their arrival. When they get there, a store assistant will accompany them around the store. Through accessible websites blind people can now shop at home, and in their own time.
Conclusion
Web accessibility isn't brain science. It's not just about disabled users being able to access your website - it's about everyone being able to access your website, including people using handheld devices, WebTV and in-car browsers. Any web developer with basic HTML and CSS design knowledge, and a bit of time on their hands, can easily learn and implement web accessibility.
