A report on Accessibility Issues on the World Wide Web
A broad definition of accessibility covers people operating under situational limitations as well as functional limitations: Functional limitations pertain to disabilities, such as blindness or limited use of the hands. Functional limitations can be visual, auditory, physical, or cognitive (which includes language and learning disabilities). Situational limitations relate to the prevailing circumstances, environment, or device. These limitations can affect anybody, not just people with disabilities. Examples include mobile devices and device limitations, such as having no mouse, or constraining circumstances, such as interacting with a web site through a computer integrated into a car’s dashboard, where the use of the hands and eyes is limited.
But these limitations are not something we can ignore any longer. In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) states that providers of a service cannot discriminate against people by reason of their disability and it is only a matter of time before companies will be brought to court due to this act. After all, why should some people be excluded from enjoying the web like everyone else?
Download the full article in Word format (size: 141kb)