What is Accessibility?

Accessibility is a measure that describes the degree to which a product (i.e., hardware, software, or website) can be used by as many people as possible. An accessible product is a product that everyone can use easily.

For example, Traffic lights are a tool of navigation that everyone has to use in their everyday life. For pedestrians with sight, there are lights. For pedestrians that can hear but not see, there are sounds. For pedestrians that can neither see nor hear, there is a vibrating pin below the button you press when you want to cross. In other words, traffic lights adapt to the needs of a variety of users. (NZ e-government)

Web Accessibility is about ensuring that your website can be used by everyone (disabled and non-disabled) on any browser, or device (i.e., mobile, PDA, and TV). W3C defines Web Accessibility as:

It is important to understand how disabled people use the web, and what it means to them!

There is an estimated 650 million disabled people in our world. Its a legal and ethical obligation to help them accomplish tasks that seem trivial to us.

• In Australia, 20% of the population (3,958,300 million) has a reported disability.
  (Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics)
• In New Zealand, 22% of adults (716,500 in 2001) had a disability.
  (Source: New Zealand Minstry of Health)
• In the UK, 19% of the population (6.9 million) in are disabled, and almost 18.2% (9.5 million people) say they have a long-term illness, health problem or disability. (Source: Shaw Trust and Office of National Statistics)
• In the US, 15.1% of the civilians (41.3 million) reported a disability.
  (Source: U.S.Census Bureau)

An accessible website helps more than just disabled users, it helps users with older computers, operating systems, or browsers; users with a slow connection, such as users in rural areas, or users with a dialup connection; and users without Flash or script enabled/installed.