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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."

Retail ADA Compliance: Increasing Sales with Accessibility

Retail ADA Compliance: Increasing Sales with Accessibility

The start of Q4 means one thing for retailers- the holiday shopping season. You’ve probably been working on catalogs, floor plans, displays, promotions, and other marketing materials for months. After COVID tanked much of the retail industry in Q2, it’s especially...

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Inclusive Design Interview with Eric Eggert

Inclusive Design Interview with Eric Eggert

In our upcoming seminar titled “Inclusive Design: The Big Picture”, part of our 2020 series of seminars, Eric Eggert, Knowbility’s Tech Team Lead and Web Accessibility Expert, will be providing his expertise, demystifying inclusive design, and teaching attendees how...

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What is PDF Accessibility?

What is PDF Accessibility?

What does accessibility mean? Accessibility is making things universally usable for every person.  This can mean your physical space, and it can mean your digital space.  Physical accessibility includes things like ramps and elevators and the size and spacing of your...

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A skip link on Squarespace and a bit about z-index

A skip link on Squarespace and a bit about z-index

Although the skip link I developed in part one worked, it was not a perfect solution. In this post I will discuss some potential drawbacks of my Squarespace skip link. As a reminder, a skip link is a link at the top of a web page (i.e. first in the tab order) that...

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Joe Devon, GAAD co-founder, is the 2020 AIR Program Chair

Joe Devon, GAAD co-founder, is the 2020 AIR Program Chair

GAAD Co-Founder and Founding Partner of Diamond, Joe Devon has been appointed as the 2020 Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) Program Chair. AIR is an award-winning global web accessibility competition and virtual volunteer event: teams of designers and developers...

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ADA Compliance for the Tech Industry

ADA Compliance for the Tech Industry

The tech industry has the ability to make the world a significantly more accessible place for everyone. Groceries, prescriptions, clothes, and other household items can be delivered to your door in just a few clicks. TV shows can be captioned. Books can be read aloud....

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Is a Web Accessibility Statement Better Than a Policy?

Is a Web Accessibility Statement Better Than a Policy?

Is it Better to have a Web Accessibility Statement or Policy?   In 2017 we saw a spike in web accessibility demand letters and suits. The ski resort industry alone saw at least 40 websites hit with lawsuits.  Website owners are scrambling to either build new...

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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.

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