Table of contents

• What is web accessibility?
• What are ways that people with disabilities use the Internet?
• What are common barriers to accessibility?

What is web accessibility?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web, has two good definitions that help us understand accessibility:

• "Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them."
• "When websites and web tools are properly designed and coded, people with disabilities can use them. However, currently many sites and tools are developed with accessibility barriers that make them difficult or impossible for some people to use. Making the web accessible benefits individuals, businesses, and society. International web standards define what is needed for accessibility."

What are ways that people with disabilities use the Internet?

Because there is no one-size-fits-all way to be disabled, there's no one-size-fits-all way that people with disabilities use the Internet.

• Captions/subtitles
• Transcripts
• Audio descriptions
• Screen readers
• Keyboards
• Wands
• Mouth wands
• Head wands
• Magnification software
• Speech-to-text
• Text-to-speech

What are common barriers to accessibility?

• Poor color contrast
• No captions
• No transcripts
• No audio descriptions
• No alternative text for images
• Vague, unclear, or unhelpful link text ("click here", "click here", "click here", "click here")
• Forms, inputs, and buttons that can't be accessed by keyboards
• Poor or incorrect heading formats on documents