World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
"Leading the Web to its full potential"
- International standards organization
- Multi-stakeholder, consensus process
- Develops royalty-free web standards:
- HTML, CSS, XML, SVG, SMIL, ...
- Operates from MIT, ERCIM, and Keio
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Integral part of W3C to pursue web accessibility through:
- Accessibility support within core W3C technologies
- Internationally recognized web accessibility standards
- Methods for evaluating conformance with standards
- Outreach, including awareness raising and education
- Coordinating with research and development
Web Accessibility Barriers
Examples of barriers on the Web include:
- Images and multimedia without text alternatives
- Layouts and text sizes that cannot be resized
- Forms and controls can not be used by keyboard
- Inconsistent and/or overly complex navigation
- Text that is difficult to read and understand, ...
People and Diversity
People with have diverse abilities, needs, and preferences:
- Age-related impairments
- Multiple disabilities
- Health conditions
- Changing abilities
- Temporary impairment
- Situational limitations
Accessibility and Innovation
Accessibility is a major driver of innovation and invention:
Braille Code, E-Mail, Headphone, Keyboard, Microphone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Printer, Punchcard, Scanner/OCR, Speech Recognition, Speech Synthesis, Spectogram, Subtitling, Talking Books, Telephone, Teletype, Transistor, Voice Indexing, ...
Source: Accessibility and Disability - A History of Innovation by Artur Ortega, Yahoo!
Benefits for Everyone
Web accessibility benefits many users:
- Low literacy or computer skills
- Temporal functional limitations
- Situation or external influence
- Limited bandwidth connectivity
- Legacy hardware and software
- Mobile and ambient technologies
Up to 65% benefit from accessibility (Microsoft, 2005)
Benefits for Businesses
Web accessibility has business benefits:
- Legal & General Group - doubled visitor numbers, cut maintenance costs by two thirds, increased natural search traffic by 50%
- Tesco - £35 thousand GBP to build website, £13 million GBP per year in resultant revenue
- CNET - 30% increase in traffic from Google after CNET started providing transcripts
Source: Web Accessibility Business Case by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Importance of Standards
International standards coordination is essential for:
- Reduce cost of accessibility solutions
- Facilitate international harmonization
- Help address technology convergence
