W3C Accessibility Compliance for Public Sector Web Sites
As with public buildings, transportation, services, and other resources or locations, public information on the World Wide Web needs to be accessible to persons with disabilities. The standard for determining accessibility to information on the Web has been set by the World Wide Web Consortium ( www.w3c.org ) and is the set of standards used in Canada for determining capability and compliance with accessibility for government and non-government web sites.
It is expected that all federal and provincial government-funded Web sites will be W3C compliant in the near future. Much of this drive was the result of the implementation of the Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2001 which directed all government entities in Ontario to establish Accessibility Advisory Committees that assessed all aspects of accessibility and made recommendations regarding areas of improvement.
There was some early expectations that compliance would be mandatory by now (Spring, 2004), but capacity, compliance and enforcement of these policies has not been addressed. It is expected that the further development of web information will adhere to W3C standards on a voluntary basis for the foreseeable future. The Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration provides information about the provincial practices and directions for web accessibility at:
http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/accessibilityOntario/
Another invaluable resource for understanding and assuring web accessibility for persons with disabilities is the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto, found at:
They will provide public organizations with assistance in developing information to meet W3C standards and conduct audits on existing sites for determining compliance and providing enhancement recommendations.
W3C also provides an online site compliance validator that can be accessed for free at:
Hot Banana 5.0 enables web sites to be meet W3C Priority 1 and 2 standards and most sites score between 80 and 90 per cent in the Priority 3 standards. This would allow any Hot Banana site to be rated "Conformance Level Double-A" by W3C. The Triple-A conformance level can be achieved through additional user effort on the use of descriptive Alt Tags and imbedded data that can be read by the assistive device technology used as interpreters by individuals with visual or hearing impairments.
Hot Banana features that provide this capability automatically include:
- Breadcrumbing in the standard navigation system
- Not using drop down menus from the navigation buttons
- The automated site map development system
- Meta Data customization and automation features
- Alt Tag customization features
- Internal search engine systems
- Printer-friendly pages that can be set in extra large font sizes
Many Hot Banana site owners are not even aware of the compliance that their sites exhibit, as they are in industries that do not require or appreciate this feature yet. This has affected them positively, however, as they have demonstrated accessibility compliance leadership inadvertently.
