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Following standards-based web design and accessibility guidelines allows web content to be more available not only to people with disabilities, but to all users, whatever hardware and software they are using to access the Internet or constraints they may be operating under. Utilising these guidelines will also help users find information on the web more quickly.
The standard for web content accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which were devised by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The guidelines are available at: http://www.w3.org/tr/wai-webcontent. The W3C guidelines provide a series of checkpoints that can be used to ensure that websites are accessible. Each checkpoint has a priority level assigned by the Working Group based on the checkpoint's impact on accessibility.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has responsibility for promoting the objectives of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and provides advice about the implications of the Act for website operators. HealthInsite partners should also be familiar with the following document from HREOC: World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes, at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/www_3/www_3.html.
Other documents that will assist with ensuring that websites are accessible are Core Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-CORE-TECHS/.
A range of evaluation, repair and transformation tools for web content accessibility are available at the Web Accessibility Initiative website at http://www.w3.org/WAI/. In addition, some organisations provide website testing and advisory services.
Publishing standards for HealthInsite, v5, June 2007
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