Forthcoming accessibility standards will be based on Section 508 of a 1973 federal law, the Rehabilitation Act. Section 508 was added in August 1998. It calls on federal agencies to make their computer and Internet systems accessible to Americans with a wide range of disabilities. Compliance instructions have been issued by the See U.S. Justice Dept.
But despite the rules and regulations, compliance is still "largely a matter of labeling" items on a page, according to David Bradburn, director of product marketing at Lernout & Hauspie, a Burlington, Mass.-based maker of speech-recognition tools.
If you're using an image on your site, for instance, label it using the "alt" function, Bradburn said. This way a blind user, accessing the site with an audio screen reader program, will hear a description of the image.
And if you have an audio clip, make the text available as an option for deaf users, he said.
Two sites not necessary
Some Webmasters might think the only way to provide true accessibility for the disabled is to have two separate versions of their sites. But that's not really necessary if they take the right precautions, Bradburn said.
"It's a big job to update two versions of a site, but the good news is, you don't have to," he said.
The World Wide Web Consortium offers a concise list of guidelines for Web site accessibility on its Web site.
