Accessibility for people with disabilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act and similar laws and regulations mandate equal access to computer systems for users with disabilities. There is legal obligation to facilitate intranet use by disabled employees who need access to their company's internal web site to do their job.

• For motor disabilities, assistive technology supplements standard input-output equipment for computers.
  ... The Trace Center offers information about assistive technology.
• For visual disabilities, ensure high contrast foreground/background colors, don't set type in absolute pixel or point sizes, use proper html markup to indicate page structure, use "alt" tags to clearly describe all images.
• For auditory disabilities, make sure generated sounds are not critical for navigation, provide transcripts of spoken audio passages, provide subtitles for video.
• Bobby was created by Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) to help web page authors identify and repair significant barriers to access by individuals with disabilities.
  ... Verify web design using Bobby Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 or U.S. Section 508 Guidelines.

Reference:
Nielsen, Designing web usability, 2000.
Laux, L. Designing accessible web pages and web applications, Internetworking, 1999.

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