WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: What is Web Accessibility? From the W3C

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From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Mar 24, 2006 1:10PM

> My apologies if any of this seems to be directed at anyone personally.
> I'm using Darrel's comments because they were made a few
> minutes ago, and seem to represent things that others have
> been saying.

It's a lively discussion. No need to apologize. ;o)

I concede that lots of people would prefer to maintain that the term
'accessibility' has the sole definition of 'to accommodate those with
particular physical or mental disabilities'.

As such, at least for this list, I probably need to start using the term
'universal access' and consider accessibility a part of that broader
concept when debating. ;o)

FYI, Apple has long used 'unversal access' to identify its control panel
specifically targetted at people that 'have difficulties with
seeing|hearing|keyboard|mouse'. Another blending of terms, it seems.

A favorite quite of mine from Fine Homebuilding also seems to mix the
terms:

http://mnteractive.com/archive/universal-design-in-wood-and-pixels/

So, not saying one is right/wrong, just that it appears that getting
everyone to agree on the specific meanings of these two terms may not be
that easy.

-Darrel