Web Accessibility Initiative News & Articles

We know it’s frustrating when you come across a website that’s less than functional, full of accessibility barriers. How often do any of us take action? Those days are over.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) wants you to take action when you come across an inaccessible  website. They are encouraging users to tell organizations how important it is that their websites are accessible.

To help you do so, they’ve published a guide called Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites. Currently in draft form, the guide offers tips for approaching the suspect site and how to describe the problem in a non-intimidating, but helpful manner. There are even sample emails and links to additional resources to help you and the offending party learn more about accessibility and its role on the Internet.

The W3C is also soliciting input from users. You can leave your ideas for the guide and your experiences dealing with inaccessible websites via their blog or through the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Interest Group’s public discussion at wai-eo-editors@w3.org list (users need to subscribe first). Comments are due by February 3.

On November 3, 2008, the W3C published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. These guidelines include a number of recommendations that developers can use to make content more accessible to people with disabilities and to everyone in general.