Building Web Apps for Everyone

Chapter 3. Web Accessibility

The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.

Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web

Building accessible websites and applications means making those sites available to users regardless of physical ability. This covers a broad range of disabilities, such as visual, physical, auditory, cognitive, and age-related disabilities. When we build with accessibility in mind, we make an ethical decision of inclusion. Alternatively, when we choose to ignore accessibility, it excludes people with disabilities from participating in the Web.

Today, as web users, we access government services, educational resources, bank transactions, social interactions, work tasks, healthcare, entertainment, and more through our web browsers. As the Web continues to play an increasingly large role in our daily lives, this causes inaccessible websites to be a hurdle to fully participating in society. With the importance the Web plays in our society, it has become our responsibility as developers to ensure its equal access to all.

The W3C summarizes the social issues around web accessibility in three principles:

• It is essential that the Web is accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities.
• The Web is an opportunity for unprecedented access to information for people with disabilities.
• The Web is an opportunity for unprecedented interaction for people with ...