Making the web usable for all, one website at a time

As the Internet becomes increasingly vital to our everyday lives, so too does web accessibility – the design practice that allows people with disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web.

“Early on, it became clear to us that building our websites and applications with accessibility in mind was the right thing to do,” said Barb Iannucci, content and usability manager for UIT University Support Services (USS).

In support of this effort, Iannucci’s content and usability group recently organized a free WebAIM Accessibility workshop for University staff, held on March 11. WebAIM, a non-profit organization based at the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University, is a leading provider of web accessibility expertise.

WebAIM’s mission states: “To expand the potential of the web for people with disabilities by providing the knowledge, technical skills, tools, organizational leadership strategies, and vision that empower organizations to make their own content accessible to people with disabilities.”

“We are grateful for the relationship we have been able to establish with WebAIM, and the opportunities we’ve had to bring them to the University to share their accessibility expertise,” said Iannucci. “For some it serves as an introduction [to web accessibility], and for others it serves as a great reminder of how important accessibility considerations and practices are to our entire web landscape.”

Making the web accessible is imperative for many reasons:

• More people with disabilities are using technology and visiting your website than you realize.
• Building an accessible website creates a better user experience for all visitors – not just those with disabilities.
• It’s the right thing to do.
• It’s also the law (universities can – and have been – sued for insufficient accessibility to content on their websites). 

“As part of the University web community, we all have an obligation to make sure that our websites and applications are usable and accessible by all people, regardless of ability,” said Iannucci.

Learn more about web accessibility and view materials provided by WebAIM. (uNID login required.)

 

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