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Overview

There are many reasons for making Web, and IT systems in general, accessible. The main advantages to business include reaching and serving millions of people with disabilities, many benefits of accessible design for other users, and the advantage of complying with accessibility requirements where those exist.

Each country has its own set of requirements and laws concerning accessibility. The most severe requirements are set in the United States. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the addition of Section 508 in 1998, forbids discrimination by local, state and federal government and governmental contractors in the provision of goods and services to the disabled and requires that all electronic and information technology purchased, developed or maintained by the government agencies to be accessible by the disabled.

The most important accessibility guidelines are developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of W3C Consortium. (Requirements of Section 508 can be seen as some sort of derivative of WAI.) WAI has 3 levels of accessibility compliance: "A", "AA", and "AAA". "AAA" is the most advanced level. "A" is the simplest level. "A" level of WAI has similar, but not identical, requirements as Section 508.

Europe has many sets of country-specific regulations that should be consolidated through the European Union. The European Union commits to promote equal rights for people with disabilities and promotes the eEurope initiative. This initiative opens great perspectives for IT development in Europe and puts special attention to software accessibility design. As a part of this initiative, the eEuropean Commission suggests that all European Institutions and Member States are to approve the existing WAI guidelines. According to these guidelines, the design and content of all public Web sites should be accessible to people with disability. The Commission has also requested European standardization bodies to prepare accessibility requirements and standards.

Japanese government agencies, such as MITI, are circulating recommendations on how IT should be deployed to provide accessibility to everyone. After review and agreement, these recommendations will become regulations for doing business with the ministries.

Countries, such as Australia and Canada, now have legislation that makes it a civil right for individuals with disabilities to be able to access certain kinds of information.

Other nations follow the suit. The Nordic countries have published their own set of accessibility guidelines. Portugal and Thailand have recently introduced legislation that directly requires Web accessibility.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is currently creating Web accessibility standards similar to the standards set forth in WAI. Web accessibility will be a criterion for ISO certification as early as 2002.

Consequently, software vendors should pay special attention to accessibility of software design and modification of existing software.

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