Accessible Internet

Accessible Internet is the manner of creating websites that are as usable as possible by web surfers with disabilities. To access a website, individuals with disabilities rely on assistive devices, such as screen reader software, which translates information on a computer screen into automated audible output, and refreshable Braille displays. However, there has been continuous concern surrounding the issue that the information that disabled persons receive from a website may not be equivalent to the information that individuals without disabilities get. With rapid advances in Internet technology, assistive technology has had considerable difficulty in keeping up with web browsers with special features: electronic forms, HTML tables, style sheets, multimedia presentations, applets and plugins, scripting language, and more. Therefore, the designer of the website needs to provide the information carried by the special features in the formats/methods that assistive devices can easily use. For example, a screen reader cannot describe a picture, but it can convey the text information to the user who has visual impairments. Thus, the provision of special feature information by web designers is imperative for the most efficient use of assistive technology within Internet technology.

Section 508 of federal law has established design standards for federal websites to be compatible with existing and future assistive devices. However, these standards do not apply to private sector websites, which might not be prepared for products of assistive technology. The proposal of Section 508 was first initiated in 1996, when the U.S. Department of Justice asserted that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would apply to the coverage of websites. Two years later, former President Bill Clinton signed into law the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, which included the legislation component of Section 508. According to Section 508, federal websites must be made accessible to individuals with disabilities (federal employees and the general public), unless an “undue burden” is imposed on the department or agency. In addition, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) was required to establish and publish technical standards, among others, for federal websites to ascertain compliance with Section 508. In December of 2000, the Access Board published final rules, and the enforcement provisions of Section 508 took effect in June 2001. Many state governments are following the federal example. Nearly every state now has some sort of [Page 17]web accessibility policy, and more than 20 states have accessibility laws modeled on Section 508.

The Access Board's standards are based on access guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. Issues such as the usability of multimedia presentations, image maps, style sheets, scripting languages, applets and plug-ins, and electronic forms are addressed within these standards. The provisions do allow the use of such advanced web technology or enhancement technology but require that equivalent information be provided in a format compatible with assistive technology.

A website required to be accessible by Section 508 would be in complete compliance if it met the standards of paragraphs (a) through (p) of the final rules' Section 1194.22. Most of these provisions ensure access for people with vision impairments, although some provisions address the needs of individuals with both visual and hearing impairments. Paragraph (a) requires that a text equivalent for every non-text element, such as photographs, images, and audio presentations, be provided. For example, when audio presentations are exhibited on a web page, text, in the form of captioning, must accompany the audio, to allow people who are deaf or hearing impaired to comprehend the content. Furthermore, when an arrow image is used to indicate a navigational action such as “move to the next screen” the image must be accompanied by actual text that states the purpose of the image. Similar to audio presentations, when an image is used to represent page content, the image must have a text description accompanying it that explains the meaning of the image.

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