Web Site Accessibility Consulting
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What we do:
We help clients design Web
sites that are accessible to people with disabilities, especially to people who
are blind. To ensure the accessibility of a Web site, the best procedure is to
incorporate accessible features as the site is being designed, rather than
designing a site then modifying it for accessibility. We provide the education,
the training and the design work to make this happen.
We also review clients' existing Web sites to ensure they are accessible. For instance, people who are blind need textual descriptions of all graphics. We check Web sites for significant problems with accessibility, as well as for those that are easy to fix. We then produce reports, and/or fix the problems, and/or provide staff training on how to fix and avoid them.
Why we do it:
There are millions of
people with disabilities. Many of these people have disabilities that
make using the Web difficult. Commercial Web sites do themselves a
disservice by excluding these people from being customers.
Nonprofit agencies with inaccessible Web sites
often exclude the very consumers they are trying to reach.
Web sites should be accessible by all
people. Basic Web site redesign can make a site useable by anyone.
Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act requires accessibility for all Web sites, databases and other software used by organizations that receive federal dollars, whether that be through grants or through the procurement of an organization's products.
How we do it:
Following the
W3C accessibility
standards:
- for Web sites just being designed, we provide education and training for the site's designers, and/or accessible templates for static Web pages, and/or consulting on the accessibility of interactive applications such as discussion forums, on-line forms, embedded video, etc.
- for existing Web sites, we present a report detailing a first-pass analysis of overall accessibility problems. At that point, we offer our clients the choices of having us perform the needed redesign, training the client site designers how to do it, or performing a more detailed analysis. Such an analysis involves a thorough review of every page, script, graphic, etc. to determine accessibility. We also design page templates that allow staff to create accessible pages easily.
