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Components of Web Accessibility

Version: Early Concept Draft 2004.08.27
Note: This document is an unapproved draft and should not be distributed, referenced, or quoted under any circumstances. This document is under development by the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG), and will be offered to other W3C groups and the public for review. A change log lists revisions in progress and links to previous versions.

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to briefly show how Web accessibility depends on several components working together. It also shows how improvements in specific components could substantially improve Web accessibility.

How the Components Relate

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Whether or not a Web site is accessible to a person using the site ("user") is largely based on:


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The accessibility of the content is largely determined by:

Guidelines for Components

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WAI guidelines work together to inform the different components of Web accessibility:

The basic technologies of the Web are fundamental to Web accessibility:


Inter-dependencies Between Components

There are significant inter-dependencies between the components; that is, each component relies on other components for effective accessibility.

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[alt example not revised yet - as recorded in changelog] For example, for alternative text on images:

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When accessibility features are effectively implemented in one component, the other components are more likely to implement them.

However, if one component does not implement an accessibility feature, there is little motivation for the other components to implement it when it does not result in an accessible user experience.

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When one component is weak, sometimes other components can compensate; however, compensation usually involves much more effort and "work arounds" that are not good for accessibility overall. For example,

Related Pages

Introduction to Web Accessibility provides additional information about Web Accessibility.


Document Information

Editor: Shawn Lawton Henry. This Web page is is under development by the EOWG.

Last updated $Date: 2004/09/16 02:08:17 $ by $Author: shawn $

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