WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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What is Web Accessibility?

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From: Kynn Bartlett
Date: Mar 23, 2006 1:40PM

On 3/22/06, Austin, Darrel < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> > No, web accessibility in a general sense is about disabled
> > populations.
> That's the biggest problem with a lot of current accessibility thinking.


No, it's not.

WAY to many people assume that accessibility issues mean 'accomodating
> blind people' and fail to see the bigger picture.


While limiting it to blind people only is a problem, so also is the idea
that we can somehow magically eliminate the concept of people with
disabilities from "web accessibility."

My personal definition of web accessibility is:
> Striving to make more of your content usable for more people (ie,
> customers) on more devices.


It's nice that you have your own definition, and it's nice you care about
more devices. But ultimately, web accessibility is about making sure that
people with disabilities can get access.

There are a multitude of benefits for other people from web accessibility,
just as curbcuts for wheelchairs also help people with shopping carts,
strollers, and wheeled luggage.

But the curbcuts weren't put in for moms with strollers; they were put in
for people with wheelchairs, because the people with disabilities have a
moral, legal, and ethical right to access. (Moms with strollers DON'T.)

--Kynn