Contact: Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
21st October 2000 - The White House has invited Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WIA) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to speak at its Digital Divide Event on Accessible Technologies on 21st October 2000 in Flint, Michigan.
Ms. Brewer is presenting on issues regarding accessibility of the Web for people with disabilities, highlighting solutions developed by WIA to produce a Web that is more usable by all. "WIA works by bringing together industry, disability organizations, accessibility researchers, and government," explained Brewer. "We can show that accessible design is not only possible; but is also good design, and well within reach of all Web content publishers."
WIA's achievements include the development of guidelines for the creation of Web content that can be accessed by any user, regardless of disability, as well as guidelines for the production of software that makes it easier to produce accessible Web content automatically. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines serve as a definitive resource for Web designers to produce sites that work for the widest possible audience, and have received international endorsement.