Man in black on bicyle with mobile phone by Karl Dubost

An International Movement Towards Information Accessibility

World Summit on Information Society
United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- signed and/or ratified
- goes into force May 12
Many potential barriers for people with disabilities in ICT
Trend towards higher percentage of elders in many countries
Many carry-over social and technical benefits

Accessibility of the Web

An important aspect of right to accessibility of information
A way to
- reach customers
- access education and employment
- provide government services
- enable social networking
- and more...
Already adopted by governments in many countries
- China in discussion

Guidelines and Technical Solutions

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG)
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA)
Implementation techniques and best practices

Similarities, Differences

Unique local requirements? Not necessarily...
- already extensively cross-reviewed internationally
- distribution may vary but types of disabilities same
Different levels of support in
- assistive technologies
- authoring tools
- evaluation tools

Ingredients for an Accessible Web

Are people aware of the need?
Is there an existing framework for accessibility?
Do developers have training?
Is there software that helps create accessible Web content?
Are evaluators trained in accessibility?
Are there clear goals and timelines?

Adopting Web Accessibility in Policies

Developing Organizational Policies for Web Accessibility
Reference existing international guidelines
Use policy for authorized translations
Select conformance level and milestones
Plan for conformance testing, monitoring, follow-up

Benefits of Standards Harmonization

No conflicting requirements
Re-use of training materials
Unified market for authoring tools
Same evaluation methodology
Why Standards Harmonization is Essential to Web Accessibility

Current Status of Standards Harmonization

Many countries have different guidelines
Harder for international organizations
Less sharing of resources
US "TEITAC" -- incomplete harmonization
- still opportunities to address
EC Mandate, JIS -- new opportunities for harmonization
Many other countries -- considering WCAG 2.0

More Information