I’m sure most news oriented people are up to date on the latest accessibility news concerning Target. Well, it appears that the ripple of this case has encouraged the W3C to begin making an “Accessibility for Dummies” of sorts to help everyone out.
From my latest W3C Weekly News email today:
- WAI-ARIA to Address Access to Dynamic Web Content
- The Protocols and Formats Working Group has released First Public Working Drafts of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). The “Roadmap” describes accessibility of dynamic Web content built with technologies such as AJAX and DHTML. “Roles” provides mappings for user interface controls and navigation APIs. “States and Properties” associates behaviors with document-level markup. Read the press release and visit the Web Accessibility Initiative home page.
For any business that builds websites, this case with Target is clear reason to shift your development model. On the plus side of that (as people groan), it looks like the by-product will be that everyone will now be in on the grand secret: that producing an accessible website naturally leads to cleanly marked up, standards compliant and highly search engine friendly webpages. I guess there’s no competition like good competition.
Let me know your thoughts and experiences on this one.
Aside from my standard wordpress blog (which will be rebooted here soon), I build all of my sites to be accessible. Accessibility is so much MORE than just a blind person visiting your website (Read the book “Web Accessibility”).
The case for target is for larger businesses (and government institutions) – personal sites can be as lame as they want to be. Unfortunately, and since W3C is just a recommendation – there is no one to police this matter. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for building accessible websites. However, I have been building accessible sites for quite some time now – and yes, Target helped bring it more exposure – but HOW will sites be regulated from here on out? What will the process be?
It’s definitely awesome to see you guys moving to accessible websites as well. Too many people shun it and say ‘I don’t care about that blind person visiting my site’ – when, as I said above, it’s so much more than that. What about the fact that one of the most important visitors to your website is blind – the search bot. What about users with visual impairments/colorblindness? Is your design friendly to them as they try to navigate and find your links? What about someone who has to use a screen reader? Does your content make sense? Are your alt text values meaningful? Is your presentation separated from your content? What about someone with slow motor skills, is your pop-out menu friendly enough to not blink at them? The list goes on…
Aside from the benefits to those with disabilities – building an accessible website keeps your markup clean, gives you great hooks for CSS and the DOM, and increases load times while decreasing bandwith usage.
Accessibility should NEVER be an extra (or extra charge), the conscious developer should always work to make sure their site is accessible.
See 456bereastreet.com for more information.
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