The Law
According to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, all electronic and information technology that we develop, purchase, maintain, or use must be accessible to people with disabilities. The technology must be able to be used as effectively by people with disabilities as by those without.
Accessible
"Accessible" means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in a equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information as fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability. Although this might now result in identical ease of use compared to that of persons without disabilities, it still must ensure equal opportunity to the educational benefits and opportunities afforded by the technology and equal treatment in the use of such technology (Resolution Agreement, South Carolina Technical College System, OCR Compliance Review No. 11-11-6002).
Universal Design
Universal Design is a concept in which products and environments are designed to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.
The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Web "content" generally refers to the information in a web page or web application, including:
- natural information such as text, images, and sounds
- code or markup that defines structure, presentation, etc.
(from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview)
