INTRODUCTION
In the past three decades, the method of receiving and conveying information has shifted from paper-based, typewriter-generated, hand-edited, and printing-press-produced publications to more technology-mediated, intelligent, WYSIWYG software-generated forms. Consequently, the concept of access to information has changed to reflect this phenomenon. The new forms of access to information that have made it easier for non-disabled people have often created barriers for people with disabilities.
The notion of access to information involving the civil rights of people with or without disabilities arises from the fact that access to information through technology has increasingly become a necessary tool for success and the source of opportunity in education and employment. With the advent of information technology and the unprecedented opportunities they created for people with and without disabilities, it has become apparent that information technologies have a tremendous potential for allowing people with disabilities to participate in mainstream activities and to support their ability to live independently.
The disability rights movement in the United States originated during the post-World War II era when large numbers of veterans who were disabled in the war joined the efforts of parents seeking education and independent living options for their children with disabilities (Slatin & Rush, 2003). Recently, we have seen a growing body of significant laws, regulations, and standards concerning Web accessibility that impact people with disabilities and their ability to fully overcome digital barriers and participate in the Web environment. In defining Web accessibility, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended in 1998 documents that “Web sites are accessible when individuals with disabilities can access and use them as effectively as people who don’t have disabilities” (Section 508, 1998). A person with a disability is defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as “someone who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a record of such impairment, or a person who is regarded as having such impairment” (ADA, 1990). The legal foundation for protecting the civil rights of persons with disabilities has been established through a series of federal and state laws, and court decisions. These laws provide a legal ground on Web accessibility implementation.
LAWS, REGUALTIONS, STANDARDS, AND GUIDELINES
Under the provisions of laws, some of the legal milestones that have direct impact on Web accessibility are Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998.
Section 504, Rehabilitation Act, 1973
Signed on October 1, 1973, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is regarded as landmark legislation and the first civil rights law prohibiting recipients of federal funds from discriminatory practices on the basis of disability.
Core areas of the legislation consist of the prohibition of such activities as discriminatory employment practices, and discrimination in the delivery of educational offerings; health, welfare, and social services; or any other type of programs benefit or service supported in whole or in part by federal funds.
Section 504 is currently applied to all entities that receive federal government funds, including states, counties, cities, towns, villages, and their political subdivisions, public and private institutions, public and private agencies, and other entities that receive federal money. Each federal agency has its own set of Section 504 regulations that guide its own programs. Over the years, the Rehabilitation Act has been amended several times to address the constant changes in technology and its impact on society. The amendments most relevant to the access to information technology are those made to Section 508. The significance of the Section 504 lies not only in that it was the first statute applying civil rights protections to people with disabilities, but that it also “furnished the model for major subsequent enactments, including the ADA” (NCD, 2001). Section 504 was legislated too early to specifically addresses the issue of access to services and programs provided over the Web.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 1990
Passed on July 26, 1990, the ADA establishes a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability. While Section 504 applies to federal government agencies and those that receive federal funds, the ADA extends the rights of equal treatment for people with disabilities to the private area, to all places of public accommodation, employers, and entities that deliver government services. The core sections of the law are found in the first three titles: employment, state and local government activities, and public accommodation. Title II of the ADA requires that state and local governments give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from all of their programs, services, and activities, such as: public education, employment, transportation, recreation, health care, social services, courts, voting, and town meetings. Section 202, Title II indicates that:
“…no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by such entity.” (ADA, 1990)
Title II recognizes the special importance of communication, which includes access to information in its implementing regulation at 28 CFR Section 35.160(a). The regulation requires that a public entity must take appropriate steps to ensure that communications with persons with disabilities are as effective as communications with persons without disabilities. The ADA mandates for “effective communication, reasonable accommodations, and auxiliary aides and services” (ADA, 1990).
However, Web accessibility did not become prominent until 1996 when the Department of Justice (DOJ) responded to Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the author of the ADA, when he inquired on behalf of one of his constituents on Web page compatibility for the blind and other people with disabilities. In response, DOJ stated that ADA Title II and III do indeed require covered entities to provide “effective communication” regardless of the media used, and that information offered through digital media must be offered through “accessible means” as well. The Internet is an excellent source of information and, of course, people with disabilities should have access to it as effective as people without disabilities (DOJ, 1996). This response involves understanding to what extent the ADA requires Web pages to be accessible to people with disabilities. The DOJ’s ruling explains how the mandate for “effective communication” in ADA should apply to Web pages and Web design.
Section 508 Rehabilitation Act, 1998
Signed into law on August 7, 1998, as part of the Workforce Investment Act, Congress revised Section 508, an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The core area of this amendment is to ensure that all Americans have access to information technology. The law applied specifically to all U.S. government agencies, but it also affects anyone who works with the U.S. government. The law requires that when developing, procuring, maintaining, or using electronic and information technology (EIT), federal departments or agencies should ensure that the EIT allows federal employees with disabilities to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of information and data by other federal employees (Section 508, 1998).
Section 508 charges the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) with the task of producing accessibility standards for all electronic and information technologies used, produced, purchased, or maintained by the federal government. On December 21, 2000, the Access Board finalized and issued the standards. With its publication, the federal government for the first time set specific access standards for information presented over the Web. According to the law, federal agencies were permitted a six-month period after the standards were issued to demonstrate that their information technology systems met the standards. Federal agencies became subject to civil rights litigation for noncompliance under Section 508 after June 21, 2001. These standards have been folded into the federal government’s procurement regulations, namely the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) to which most agencies are subject. Agencies not covered by the FAR should incorporate the Access Board’s Section 508 Standards into their own procurement regulations. The standards define means of disseminating information, including computers, software, and electronic office equipment. They provide criteria that make these products accessible to people with disabilities, including those with vision, hearing, and mobility impairments. The scope of Section 508 and the Access Board’s standards are limited to the federal sector. It does not explicitly apply to the private sector or to state and local governments.
The statements issued by the U.S. Department of Education and the Access Board support a concept of state government obligations wherein they abide by Section 508 by virtue of their linkage with funding supplied to state governments through the Assistive Technology Act (29 USC 3001). There is a statement in the U.S. Department of Education’s enforcing regulations to the Assistive Technology Act at 34 CFR Part 345, requiring “compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973″ (34 CFR 345.31).
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Founded in 1994, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was originally organized by the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) and by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The W3C launched the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in April 1997 specifically to address the question of how to expand access to the Web for people with disabilities. In February 2000, the WAI published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG) and Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (ATAG), and the User Agent Accessibility Guideline 1.0 (UAAG).
The WCAG establishes three priority checkpoints for Web content developers to meet. The guidelines include 64 checkpoints arranged under 14 separate guidelines within the three priorities.
• Priority I. Developers MUST satisfy Priority I checkpoints in order to attain a minimum degree of accessibility. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access some part of the information.
• Priority II. Developers SHOULD satisfy Priority II checkpoints for a higher degree of accessibility.
• Priority III. Developers MAY address Priority III checkpoints for maximum accessibility and usability (WAI, 2000).
Topics of the guidelines include images, programming scripts, navigation, multimedia, forms, frames, and tables. The guidelines are detailed and prioritized with an associated checklist (www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ full-checklist.html). WCAG 1.0 has become the basis for accessibility standards adopted by the international community.
Laws, Regulations, and Policies in Other Countries
The World Wide Web has no boundaries, therefore, “nations everywhere are developing policies and standards to enhance the accessibility of electronics and information technology” (Paciello, 2000). These nations include European countries (Belgium, France, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and United Kingdom), Canada, Australia, and Japan. As a founding contributor, the European Community provides financial support to the WAI. Among these countries, Australia and Canada are two counties that have enacted legislation. Prominent Australian legal standards include the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of1992 and the Anti-Discrimination Act of New South Wales of1977. Australia’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, a government agency, is responsible for creating and establishing legal decrees mandating equality of access for the disabled. In Canada, the Equity and Diversity Directorate of the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) “was the first government institution in any country to create a series of Web accessibility guidelines used to evaluate Web pages” (Paciello, 2000). The Common Look and Feel Working Group, created in 1998 by the Treasury Board Secretariat’s Internet Advisory Committee, is charged to establish standards and guidelines as a base for official government policy.
ISSUES RELATED TO WEB ACCESSIBILITY
The current problems encountered in the implementation of accessible Web design do not only stem from design issues, nor are they because of a lack of laws, regulations, and government-related standards, although there are unanswered questions in that laws create difficulty in the implementation process. The current problems we are facing are the absence of an obligation to fulfill legal requirements and by not being aware that ensuring resource accessibility is a legal mandate. Many Web developers have not focused on the extent to which their Web pages are accessible to people with disabilities. This situation reveals that institutions are only just beginning to apply accessible Web design techniques and are not aware of the urgency behind designing accessible Web pages.
A primary issue that constitutes a barrier for implementation is that the current legal framework for electronic and information technology accessibility is actually a patchwork of laws covering certain categories of technology in some settings, other categories in other settings, but nowhere reflecting an overview or comprehensive assessment of either the issues or the solutions (NCD, 2001). The absence of obligations in fulfilling legal requirements has further complicated the implementation process. In many cases, the absence of obligations is due to unfamiliarity with the legal responsibility for creating accessible Web sites. Compounding these problems have been the conflicting views between minimum compliance and maximum accessibility. There is a tendency that most Web designers are either unaware of the laws and regulations, or ignore the accessibility requirements, or only pay attention to them as part of legal requirements.
Part of problem created by today’s networked environment is that stand-alone workstations utilizing assistive technology software solutions are no longer sufficient because in the Web environment, the linkage between an individual and the Internet community as a whole is addressed, and access to the Web cannot be handled on a case-by-case basis using workstations with assistive technology. When approaching the issue of accessibility, John Mueller, the author of Accessibility for Everyone: Understanding the Section 508 Accessibility Requirements, points out that the issue should be approached from the viewpoint of universal design: “The application you create should work equally well with any hardware the user might have attached to the machine” (2003). Assistive technology alone cannot overcome the barriers that are created at a more basic level, the format in which content is presented (Schmetzke, 2001). For example, when electronic forms are used, the form shall allow people with disabilities to fill out the required information and to complete the online transaction. If the instruction for where to enter the appropriate information is not given, even the smartest screen reader would not know what to do with the input box, therefore the user with visual impairment or blindness would not know what to do either. Access barriers created by inaccessible design cannot be overcome even with the most sophisticated assistive technology. Further, assistive technology may also give rise to issues of incompatibility. Therefore, the Web environment mandates that potential barriers in Web design going beyond the computer workstation be examined.
IMPLEMENTATION
The benefits resulting from the implementation of universal Web design principles, which allow pages to be accessible to the largest number of the population, have been emerging. Functionalities found in assistive technology can streamline our digital architecture, and the very functionality required in Web design by people with disabilities can meet dynamic requirements for Web-based transactions. A universal Web design will greatly reduce the cost for assistive technology geared specifically to individual computer workstations, and allow universal access for users from anywhere at anytime. In a broad sense, a universal Web design allows the disability community to benefit as a whole rather than achieving accessibility through a segregated, compartmentalized, and ad hoc approach.
The overwhelming benefits of creating universally accessible Web pages can hardly be disputed. However, accessibility barriers are usually systematic. There are practical and legal reasons for addressing accessibility issues in our education, policy, and design. As the rapid development of new Web applications continues, it is necessary to ensure that barriers themselves will not continue to expand. We have seen tremendous efforts underway in the implementation process.
Education to raise awareness of Web accessibility issues, understanding the laws related to accessibility, and the consequences of major disparities in our society are a first step toward solutions. It is crucial that people with disabilities be involved in the procurement and/or development of accessibility solutions. Thus, issues of compatibility and accessibility can be anticipated and addressed during the strategic planning stage. Identifying problems and implementing repairs are two integral elements of Web site accessibility assessment. One way to ensure the assessment can be carried out is to recommend its inclusion into the institution’s Web planning and design process. Another is for the institution to develop its own checklists or follow the most up-to-date guidelines published by the W3C. The assessment should indicate the areas of violations and content that are inaccessible. Based on the assessment, a plan should be made to integrate the findings and recommendations for change. Developing tools to facilitate accessible Web design is a key to the ultimate success of an accessible Web site.
Principles of universal design should be achieved, and the view of depending heavily on the tool of the assistive devices to mediate and decode should be utilized as a last result. Conducting usability studies with the understanding that the accessibility is an integral part of usability will assist in promoting inclusion.
FUTURE TRENDS
The ultimate goal for Web sites is universal design, or pervasive accessibility-interfaces that adapt to the user, regardless of ability. It is so often that with each release of new technology, there will be fixes to accessibility problems. “Subsequently, that technology that increases access to people with disabilities is termed assistive and adaptive as opposed to being a technology that is in inherently accessible” (Paciello, 2000). As we observed, while much of today’s technology is designed lacking accessibility, recent awareness of laws and guidelines, and advances in promoting accessibility give rise to hope for achieving the ultimate goal for accessibility. The benefits resulting from the implementation of universal Web design principles, which allow pages to be accessible to the largest number of segments of the population, have been emerging.
Discussions about the “digital divide” problem, needs for accessible Web design, and practical tips for designing barrier-free Web sites found in literature in recent years have demonstrated awareness-raising efforts (Casey, 1999; Rouse, 1999; Jobe, 2000; Valenza, 2000).
Awareness of the laws has recently increased the development of computers utilizing voice recognition and speech output systems. With technology advancement, personal computers with neural interfaces using brain and sensory technology that enable an individual to interact with a computer will allow people who have otherwise no use of their hands to interact with computers by sensing head and brain signals and translating those to computer input actions. The combination of Web and television services provides a promising future for the disabled community, particularly potential solutions for educaion.
CONCLUSION
The concept of accessible design or universal design is increasingly becoming an important component of Web design. Today, public and private entities are subject to the requirements of the ADA, Section 504, and Section 508, whether or not they receive federal funds. According to the definition of the law, denial of access resulting from the inaccessibility of mainstream information technology is considered to be discrimination. Barriers mostly resulting from the absence of obligations to fulfill legal requirements should be eliminated as the awareness of the importance of accessibility increases. Functionalities found in assistive technology can streamline our digital architecture, and the very functionality required in Web design by people with disabilities can meet dynamic requirements for Web-based transactions. A universal Web design will greatly reduce the cost for assistive technology geared specifically to individual computer workstations, and allow universal access for users from anywhere at anytime. The benefits and value for overcoming these barriers for the community of people with disabilities cannot be disputed, and maximum accessibility is a goal for us to achieve.
KEY TERMS
ALT-Text: Stands for Alternative Text, primarily used to render graphics when the image is not being displayed.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): U.S. public law enacted in 1990 ensuring rights for people with disabilities. This legislation mandates reasonable accommodation and effective communication.
Bobby: A Web page accessibility validation service provided by the Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST); uses the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and evaluates Web pages for possible errors and ranks them in order of priority.
JAWS: A Windows screen reader from Henter-Joyce; stands for Job Access for Windows. JAWS works with PCs to provide access to software applications and the Internet. With its internal software speech synthesizer and the computer’s sound card, information from the screen is read aloud for visually impaired and blind people.
Section 508: Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is U.S. legislation that establishes requirements for electronic and information technology developed, maintained, procured, or used by the federal government.
W3C: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies such as: specifications, guidelines, software, and tools to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding.
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): Established by W3C and the Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation in 1997, the WAI works with organizations around the world to promote Web accessibility in five key areas: technology, guidelines, tools, education and outreach, and research and development.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0):The official set of guidelines published by the W3C to assist Web content developers in the creation of accessible Web sites. The guidelines established three priority levels with 64 checkpoints for Web developers to meet.
