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Guide helps Web sites be more accessible
Tuesday, November 14 2000
by Paula Mythen


Frontend has published "Accessibility and Usability for e-Government - A Primer
for Public Sector Officials", a white paper aimed at helping designers create
Web sites that are more accessible to people with disabilities. 

The paper outlines what accessibility is and which disabilities it concerns. It
also analyses common accessibility problems. Web sites are supposed to be
designed for all users, and those who have disabilities such as visual impairment
must be considered during the design process, the guide states. Other
disabilities associated with accessibility include motor skills, hearing
impairment and cognitive abilities.



Analyses of three Government sites www.revenue.ie, www.donegal.ie/dcc and
www.irlgov.ie/taoiseach showed accessibility problems on each site. Intended as a
commentary rather than a criticism of the sites, the review shows the most common
faults identified on these sites were poor navigation, poor use of frames and
images missing "alt" text, a text tag which explains the contents of an image.




The text-only version of the Revenue Commissioners passed an accessibility test
known as the Bobby test, although the graphic homepage, which is the main point
of entry for the text-only pages, failed.



Bobby, available from the Centre for Applied Special Technology, is a piece of
free software which analyses Web pages for accessibility. Alternatively designers
could refer to "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines" issued by the Web
Accessibility Initiative, a working group sponsored by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), an independent, international body which creates Internet and
programming language standards.



"The Web is liberating for many people with disabilities and just as equal
opportunity exists so too must equal access," explained Mark Magennis, Head of
Usability at Frontend.



Accessibility targets have been established on a European level in the eRurope
initiative which was launched at the end of 1999 and the Irish Government
intends, with the help of the National Disability Authority, to make all public
sector Web sites accessible by the end of 2001. 



Although a disability does restrict a person, the functionality of a Web site
should always be accessible. In many cases designers may just have to rearrange
content or provide new access methods to make a Web site more accessible to
disabled people and the technologies they use. 



Although there is as yet no direct legislation in Ireland concerning the
accessibility of Web sites, it is in the planning stage. A landmark ruling by the
Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, found the organisers of
the Sydney Olympics failed to make their Web site (www.olympics.com) accessible
to people with visual impairments and they were fined AUS20,000 and ordered to
remedy the situation immediately. 



The US Rehabilitation Act (1998) requires that all Federal agencies have
accessible Web sites and intranets by Spring 2001. 



Founded in 1998, Frontend provides user-centred interface solutions for on-line
developments and software applications. With offices in Dublin and London,
Frontend has a staff of 30. Clients include Bank of Ireland, Barclays, Logica,
Local Ireland, Baltimore Technologies, First-e, Bank of Ireland, Gateway, Oracle,
Eircom, and The Information Society Commission.



"Accessibility and Usability for e-Government - A Primer for Public Sector
Officials" is available to download at:
http://www.frontend.com/accessibility_paper.html