Making Web sites accessible is just common sense. A Web site that's navigable by an assistive technology such as a screen reader is also accessible by phones and palmtops, not to mention by old, slow computers. Federal agency websites must be accessible by June. The federal Access Board announced new standards that all federal agencies will have to use when they design websites. The guidelines, from the federal Access Board, say that federal agencies must ensure that the electronic and information technology they use is accessible to people with disabilities.
Several laws govern accessibility of websites.
Basic access is built into the architecture of the World Wide Web and has been since the infancy of the internet, as Judy Brewer of the World Wide Web consortium can explain. But even sites that today operate with high-end graphics and sound displays can easily be made accessible. As personal digital assistants become more popular, text-based content becomes important. The busy executive waiting in an airport who wants to check her stock portfolio on her cell phone isn't going to turn to a graphics-only site. If digitized video had synchronized captions, its text could be searched instantaneously.