If authors who create Web pages follow accessibility guidelines, the Web, unlike many traditional environments, is accessible to users with disabilities. The greatest access challenge, relative to the Web, is therefore to make sure that all authors follow accessibility guidelines. When we talk about all authors, this encompasses professional design firms, government webmasters, mom and pop retailers, and the kid down the block. The guidelines are published and available on the Web. Tools exist that allow the author to check the accessibility of their site.
Legislation is in place mandating accessible web sites.
However, all of these mechanisms require that the author know about accessibility guidelines, have the will to follow them, know where to get the necessary instructions and know how to technically implement them. A more successful method of meeting this challenge may be in providing supports and information in the Web authoring tool. The majority of authors use Web authoring tools and the percentage whom prefer authoring tools to manual HTML markup is increasing. The authoring tool is a mechanism that can reach authors who have neither the knowledge or even the will to make their Web pages accessible. The ATRC is engaged in several projects related to both supporting the creation of accessible documents in authoring tools and in insuring that authoring tools are accessible.