Our Web Sites and the Importance of Accessibility
Earlier this year the SSEC Web Team released a set of SSEC Web guidelines that our Web sites should follow. An important section of those guidelines discusses the importance of accessibility, or ensuring that all users can reasonably use our Web site.
(If you develop Web sites for SSEC and haven’t read the SSEC guidelines, now would be a good time to do so. Or even if you have read them, Bill recently updated the Accessibility rules section to include an additional tool useful for checking your site’s compliance.)
Now that you’ve read (or reread) the guidelines (you’ve read them now, right?), we’ll point out the importance of them. First and foremost, accessibility standards exist to help individuals with disabilities access Web-based content. Universities are increasingly under pressure to ensure compliance with these standards, and in some cases lawsuits have been filed (most recently the National Federation of the Blind sued Penn State); on a related note the UW-Madison recently received a demo of an automated content compliance tool called HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff (no word yet on what happens after the demo and trial period to the test the tool).
Also worth noting, we are required by law (Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act) as well as by UW-Madison rules to make our websites accessibility compliant.
But perhaps just as important, adhering to the guidelines will improve your overall Web site design. You’ll create a better experience for anyone visiting your pages.
We strongly encourage all our web developers to follow the guidelines laid out by the University. Not only will you improve the experience on your Web pages for individuals with disabilities, but following good design practices will help ALL your users.
If you have any questions about accessibility, please feel free to contact anyone on the Web Team.
