Web Accessibility

• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
  W3C sets international standards for accessible Web design. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding. Operates a W3C MarkUp Validation Service: a free service that checks HTML documents for conformance to W3C Recommendations and other standards.

• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
  
  WAI, in coordination with organizations around the world, pursues accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.

• Victorian Government Accessibility Toolkit
  The Victorian Government's WWW Accessibility (Disability) Policy (IT&T39) states "Departments should design their web sites to promote equal access for people with disabilities". As such, departments and agencies are required to obtain at minimum Level A conformance to W3C accessibility guidelines.
  This toolkit shows departments and agencies how to conform to this policy and the W3C Accessibility Guidelines. The toolkit is designed for business managers and web site owners to enable them to effectively present the business case for accessibility and manage the processes involved.

• JAWS
  A popular screen reader, JAWS® for Windows® works with your PC to provide access to software applications and the Internet. With its internal software speech synthesizer and the computer's sound card, information from the screen is read aloud, providing technology to access a wide variety of information, education and job related applications. JAWS also outputs to refreshable Braille displays, providing Braille support of any screen reader on the market. JAWS Software is made by Freedom Scientific.

• Bobby^TM
  
  Bobby is a web-based tool that analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities.

• My Browser - a Free, Specialized Web Browser
  My Browser is a free program, funded by the Australian Government. The program is designed to provide an uncluttered, highly accessible web browsing experience for people with high support needs. It requires MS Internet Explorer 5+ to be installed on your machine. The entire browser is a single small (approx 20k) file which may be saved to the users desktop, floppy disk, or easily emailed to other users. To install your own individualized copy(ies) of My Browser, simply fill in your preferences in the form: My Browser

• If you need a more robust solution for with more features, on-screen "popup" keyboard, and built in training and assessment modules, see EIA - Enhancing Internet Access

• Web Accessibility Toolbar
  Provided by the Accessible Information Solutions (AIS) team at the National Information and Library Service (NILS), Australia. The Web Accessibility Toolbar software contains a range of Tools:
  • To examine discrete aspects (structure/code/content) of a html document
  • To facilitate the use of 3rd party applications
  • To simulate the user experience of different users
  • along with a range of references and additional resources

• Designing an Accessible World
  Vicnet list of Accessibility links

• Designing for an Accessible Web: Workshops 2003
  An accessible web is available to everyone, irrespective of sight, physical,or other disability. This workshop will show you how to do achieve this. Accessible web design also improves the general quality of web services, through improved download times, navigability, and simplification of maintenance tasks.

• Web Accessibility Workshop Notes
  Notes from "Usable and Accessible Web design" presented by Vision Australia Foundation

See also:

• Information for Website Builders
• Further Resources for Website Builders

• People with Disabilities

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