The amazing growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a depository
for information has been a boon especially for people with disabilities.
The amount and type of information that a person can access from a desktop
computer is astounding, and the benefits for people with disabilities are
obvious. However, with the growth in size, the WWW has also experienced
a growth in advanced web publishing tools such as graphics, image maps,
tables, audio and even real time video. Though these advancements
provide a more entertaining and exciting internet experience for most of
us, those who rely on text based screen readers can easily become bogged
down, as these screen readers handle the presence of non textual materials
very poorly, possibly making the web page completely illegible. This
is not to say that we should completely avoid these things, but merely
that we need to pay as much attention to the accessibility of our electronically
published materials as we do to our print materials. This website
contains a minimal amount of graphics and no authoring tools were used
that exceed the ability of text based browsers like Lynx.
For a much more advanced discussion on the accessibility
of the World Wide Web, please follow the link below to a guide published
by UCLA's Disabilities and Computing Program.
Ultimate Guide to Section 508
http://www.dcp.ucla.edu/wahp.htm
Other links to web accessibility information.
World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design
"Distance Learning Over the Internet: Access for the Disabled"
Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education
W3C Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Web Access Resources
Microsoft Introduction to Accessible Web Pages
Writing Accessible HTML Documents
WebAIM - Accessibility In Mind
