Why should designers create more accessibly designed websites?
Many designers may be unaware that there are an estimated 7 to
10 million (1994-5 statistics) people of all ages who are blind
& visually impaired living in the United States alone. These
people use the web for much the same reasons that sighted people
do. They pay bills, shop online and get there news from the Internet.
Why should designers bother to take on the burden of designing
accessible pages. Isn't it alot of extra work for nothing?
Rememeber that the World Wide Web is just that. It is a source
of information that is available to everyone in the world. To design
pages without consideration for disabled users is to deny the basic
nature of why the Internet was established in the first place.
There ought to be a law
Congress enacted the Rehabilitation Act in 1973 to provide people
with disabilities opportunities to gain meaningful employment with
the Federal government. The law defined the rights of people with
disabilities to help them re-enter the workforce. The law:
Section 508 was originally
added to the Rehabilitation Act in 1986 but established non-binding
requirements for technology accessibility. The law was amended in
1992 and again in 1998.
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