fbpx

ACCESSIBILITY INTERNATIONAL

A Global Community of Local Businesses Embracing Accessibility For All....

Accessibility:  Accessibility in it’s broadest sense refers to designing products, devices, services or environments for people who experience disabilities. Times have changed and we all have to think about more than just the physical world and also consider the online cyber world when designing our business websites to ensure that they are accessible and serve all customers.

Become An Accessibility International Partner….

Accessibility International Partners understand the importance of making their business and website
“Accessible to All”.  

The new customers that you desire, want to patronize businesses that operate honestly and ethically and that care about people and our environment.

Accessibility International

Support Accessibility for all, subscribe today for your FREE membership to Accessibility International.

Accessibility Matters….

We all recognize the importance of accessibility in our physical world.  Although newer, accessibility in the cyber world is no less important.

The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both direct unassisted access and indirect access meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology such as computer screen readers.  

Shopping online this year, nearly 10 million shoppers will be visually impaired, over 10 million will have a hearing impairment, and severe limits to their dexterity will affect more than four million.  

Assistive technology is used by many persons with disabilities to access websites.  For those using assistive hardware or technology to surf the web, if it is not compatible with that technology, your website will not be visited or viewed by potential customers.  There is a lot a website owner can do to make their site more accessible, which is good news.

Rules are coming, Website owners be aware!  

We all are aware how the American Disabilities Act (ADA) has affected brick and mortar businesses.  The ADA requires all public business locations to “prohibit exclusion, segregation, and unequal treatment” of persons with disabilities.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the process, working on changes to Title II of the ADA to include web accessibility regulations which will affect state and local government websites.    

 

Website Accessibility  

The United States Department of Justice will police U.S. sites under WCAG 2.0 Web Accessibility Guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium to ensure compliance.  The European Union and individual governments will also be imposing oversight to the world wide web to ensure accessibility for all internet users.  Smart business owners will embrace both physical and web accessibility for all potential customers by ensuring that their website is accessible to persons with disabilities.  The Web Accessibility Guidelines explain how a website should be coded and arranged to ensure that it is accessible.  

Building an accessible website.  

Use best practices, forms, images and more to build your accessible web site.  These are key areas to consider:

CLEAN CODE is the first step to building an accessible site, programmers and designers need to ensure using clean, quality code.

ALTERNATIVE TEXT for visual elements of a website is important to assist the visually impaired using assistive technology to describe the image content within a tag allowing the assistive technology to translate the description into a clear phrase or sentence.  Well written text alternatives add context to the image, improving the user experience.. 

The image depicts a weathered gray wooden door set into a buildings hand laid stone wall.

Don't close the door....

"Don't close the door on potential customers with disabilities!"

The image depicts a steep wooden staircase with many steps descending to a beautiful sandy beach with the water beyond the beach.

Make your website....

"Make your website easy for customers with disabilities to navigate."

The image depicts a person in a four wheeled scooter attempting to maneuver under the barrier of a low wooden beam placed across the trail.

Welcome all visitors

"Welcome all visitors with disabilities to your website."

6 Tips to Make Online Grant Applications More Accessible P

Organizations like ours that advocate for equal opportunities for people with disabilities proactively hire disabled people. Therefore, when grant application processes are not accessible to the assistive technologies or adaptive strategies people with disabilities...

read more

Helping the Helpers Be More Inclusive: A 4 Part Series P

Introducing a series to help philanthropists understand how and why to communicate with accessibility in mind. A few weeks ago, I complained loudly about the philanthropic and NPO support organizations that fail to meet the access requirements that allow people with...

read more
A Brief History of Screen Readers P

A Brief History of Screen Readers P

Users commonly navigate through a page or document using keyboard commands. Common commands control navigation by character, by line, by paragraph, and by element. As the user navigates, the screen reader announces each piece of content. The user hears the info and...

read more

Fundraising Campaigns Platforms for All P

Why Accessibility Matters in Fundraising Apps The global challenges of 2020 had deep impact on nonprofit work. At a time when the COVID crisis increased the need for a range of support services, nonprofit organizations saw typical funding streams decrease or...

read more

4 Ways to Make PDF Accessibility Faster P

When you’re building an engaging, informative, accessible website, PDF accessibility might not be your top priority, but it’s no less important than captioning videos and describing images with alt text. Even one inaccessible PDF is enough to render your website...

read more

AAC Resources During Covid-19 P

However, we live in a world in which the main form of communication is spoken language, and people who completely rely on AAC are at an automatic disadvantage. People who cannot rely on spoken language to communicate require support and accommodation. We can do this...

read more
WAVE 3.1 Release for Web Accessibility P

WAVE 3.1 Release for Web Accessibility P

Version 3.1 of the various WAVE web accessibility evaluation tools has been released. These updates are now available in the online WAVE tool, the Chrome and Firefox extensions, the WAVE subscription API and stand-alone API, and the WAVE Runner reporting service....

read more

Become An Accessibility International Partner….

Accessibility International Partners understand the importance of making their business and website
“Accessible to All”.  

The new customers that you desire, want to patronize businesses that operate honestly and ethically and that care about people and our environment.

Accessibility International

Support Accessibility for all, subscribe today for your FREE membership to Accessibility International.

Accessibility Toolbar