Friday, 14 March 2014

Ethical: World Wide Web Consortium Accessibility Standards



"The power of the Web is in its universality. 
Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web Consortium is the internet's main international standards organisation.

The Web has been designed for use of any person regardless of their computer software and hardware, language, location, culture, physical or mental ability. It is accessible to people with a range of hearing and sight ability.

As the Web is so easily accessed, it allows those affected by disabilities to be able to communicate and interact with others like they may not be able to do in the physical world.

To ensure that the Web provides equal access for all users, then it's essential that it be accessible, not prejudiced or excluding any person that may different from a large portion of society. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities sees the access to information a basic human right. Of course it is.

Not only does the accessibility cover the variations of people today, it also relates to the devices that the internet is available on, such as; computer systems, mobile phones, tablets and various electronic devices.

An example would be alternative text for images. The text of the image should be available in the HTML coding as those who have a lower internet bandwidth will struggle to see the image so if the text is there they will be able to see what should be in its place. If the text isn't provided for the images then the images information will be inaccessible.

It is also beneficial to those who are blind, their readers speak the page content aloud so if the image text isn't available, the text won't be available to the consumer.


No comments:

Post a Comment