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Theoretical Framework
The Americans with Disability Act of 1990 defines disability as "a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual, a record of such an
impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment." Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation
Act says that each Federal agency shall comply with guidelines that ensure accessibility of electronic and
information technology, and develop and establish procedures for electronic equipment designed to insure
that people with disabilities may use electronic equipment with or without special peripherals. This
Section amended in 1995 requires equal access to information systems for people with disabilities.
Good web-page accessibility requires that full web content be even available when one or more senses are
not being used. While this applies to all people with physical disabilities, it can also apply to those who
are not permanently disabled. Testing a site for a accessibility should be a part of a regular web design
process.
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There is currently no standardized test or criteria that recognizes web sites as accessible, although the
World Wide Web Consortium at http://w3c.org lists a complex set of guidelines and simpler set of
guidelines to the guidelines. The closest thing to standard accessibility test is the automated Bobby
service. Bobby grew out of CAST's (Center for Applied Special Technology) mission to expand
opportunities for people with disabilities through the innovative uses of computer technology. Those sites
that pass the Bobby validator at http://cast.org can display the Bobby icon. The Web Access Symbol
developed by WGBH in Boston and available at http://www.wgbh.org may be used by webmasters to
denote that their site contains accessibility features to accommodate the needs of disabled users. Yet, there
is no guarantee that a site using either symbol will be completely accessible.
The academic community has been inordinately slow to consider the needs of the disabled. Dr. Norman
Coombs of the Rochester Institute for Technology, whom many know as the founder of EASI, located at
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/, was an early advocate in the field of education. EASI's mission is to serve as a
resource to the education community by providing information and guidance in the area of
access-to-information technologies by individuals with disabilities. EASI guidelines may help Web
designers' utilize design principles that provide access to the pages for people with disabilities.
In a publication from 1997 (Cunningham & Coombs, 1997) Coombs lists four web access problem areas
for individuals with disabilities: 1) The computer display is often richer and more complicated; it can be
disturbing for persons with visual processing disorders; 2) More graphically oriented Web browsers, like
many other graphics-based software, may require the use of the mouse to navigate the Web. Some people
with motor impairments may find this impossible; 3) The use of sound convey content may leave hard-of
-hearing and deaf people with no way to access information; 4) The use of pictures to convey information
may create barriers for vision-impaired individuals. Nielsen (2000) gives an overview of the main issues
in accessible web design, emphasizing differences in design in regards to visual disabilities, auditory
disabilities, speech disabilities, motor disabilities, and cognitive disabilities. While Coombs and Nielsen
became widely known in academic circles, their ideas were often ignored.
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the fly. The directions in this case might say to use 24-point font size, and to display only the abstract,
giving the low-vision user the option of then requesting the entire paper.
References
Berners-Lee, T., Fischetti, M., & Dertouzos, M. (1999). Weaving the Web : The Original Design and
Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor. San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco.
Center for Applied Special Technology. (2000). Welcome to Bobby 3.2. Retrieved July 15, 2000 from the
World Wide Web: http://www.cast.org/bobby/
Cunningham, C., & Coombs, N. (1997). Information Access and adaptive Technology. Phoenix, AZ:
American Council on Education.
Department of Justice. (2000). Section 508 Home Page. Retrieved July 15, 2000 from the World Wide
Web: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/508home.html/
Designing Accessible Web Sites: Creating sites that are accessible to people with disabilities. (1999).
Retrieved July 15, 2000 from the World Wide Web:
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