W3C Web Accessibility Initiative

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

-- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web offers unprecedented access to information and interaction, particularly for individuals with disabilities who have had limited access in the past. However, there are currently barriers on the Web for people with visual, hearing, physical and cognitive disabilities.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is committed to promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. Web accessibility solutions also benefit other users such as those with mobile devices, low bandwidth, or with no audio output. W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in coordination with industry, disability organizations, research centers and government, is pursuing accessibility of the Web through five complementary activities:

Ensuring that Web technologies support accessibility
Developing guidelines for accessibility
Developing tools to evaluate & facilitate accessibility
Conducting education and outreach
Monitoring and engaging in research and development

RESOURCES:

For more information about W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (overview of WAI activities, key resources, how to get involved):

http://www.w3.org/WAI

Current WAI Working Drafts:

WAI Page Authoring Guidelines: http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH
WAI User Agent Guidelines: http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-USERAGENT
WAI Authoring Tool Guidelines: http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-AUTOOLS

Description of accessibility improvements in W3C Recommendations

HTML 4.0: http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/html4-access
CSS2: http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/css2-access

Information on the World Wide Web Consortium http://www.w3.org

WAI will be offering a monthly bulletin in the near future. To sign up send e-mail to w3c-wai-bulletin-request@w3.org with "subscribe" in the subject line.

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative International Program Office is supported in part by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, European Commission's TIDE Programme, Microsoft Corporation, IBM/Lotus, and NCR.