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Accessibility
Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web.
More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.
Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. The article How People with Disabilities Use the Web describes how different disabilities affect Web use and includes scenarios of people with disabilities using the Web.
Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities. For example, a key principle of Web accessibility is designing Web sites and software that are flexible to meet different user needs, preferences, and situations. This flexibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, such as people using a slow Internet connection, people with "temporary disabilities" such as a broken arm, and people with changing abilities due to aging. The article Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization describes many different benefits of Web accessibility, including benefits for organizations.
Web accessibility should also include the people who don't have access to the internet or to computers and also the countries with slow Internet.
A prominent guideline for web development was introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Web Accessibility Initiative from which we get the WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite. Where WAI tackles the semantics of html to more easily nagivate the DOM Tree, ARIA attempts to make web apps, especially those developed with javascript and AJAX, more accessible.
The use of images and graphics on websites can decrease accessibility for those with visual impairments. However, this doesn't mean designers should avoid using these visual elements. When used correctly, visual elements can convey the appropriate look and feel to users without disabilities and should be used to do so. In order to use these elements appropriately, web designers must use alt text to communicate the message of these elements to those who cannot see them. Alt text should be short and to the point--generally no more than five to 15 words. If a graphic is used to convey information that exceeds the limitations of alt text, that information should also exist as web text in order to be read by screen readers. Learn more about alt text.
Just like alt text is for people who are visually impaired, transcripts of the audio are for the people who cannot listen. Videos should always be captioned. Providing a written document or a transcript of what is being spoken makes this content accessible to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, with speech-processing disabilities, those using devices without sound capability, and people on slow or data-limited devices that make loading videos cumbersome or impossible.
Copyright © 2005 World Wide Web Consortium, (MIT, ERCIM, Keio,Beihang). http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/doc-license