Glossary of summaries

WEB ACCESSIBILITY

The World Wide Web, from its inception, was fundamentally designed to work for all people, whatever hardware or software they use and whatever their language, location or ability, making it accessible to people with a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight and cognitive ability.

Web accessibility removes barriers to communication and interaction that many people face. However, when websites, applications, technologies or tools are badly designed, they can create barriers that exclude people from using the web. Accessibility is essential for developers and organisations that want to create high-quality websites, apps and web tools without excluding anyone – not just users with disabilities – from using their products and services.

Businesses with accessible services can reach a larger, mostly untapped customer base, and experience economic gain from doing so. An estimated 100 million people in the European Union (EU) have some form of disability, representing an important market.

Web accessibility is not only about technical standards, web architecture and design. It is a matter of political will and moral obligation, enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops international standards for the web. The W3C web accessibility initiative develops standards and support materials to spread understanding about web accessibility and its implementation.

The EU’s web accessibility directive (Directive (EU) 2016/2102) has been in force since 22 December 2016. It aims to give people with disabilities better access to websites and mobile apps so that they can take a full and active part in the digital economy and society. The European Commission set up the Web Accessibility Directive Expert Group to support the directive’s implementation, to facilitate cooperation between EU Member States and stakeholders and to share best practices.

Examples of web accessibility include the following.

Text colour, contrast, and size. Colour, contrast and text size are important accessibility and readability issues for those with sight impairments or conditions such as colour blindness.
Assistive technology. Some people cannot use a mouse, including many older users. An accessible website does not rely on the mouse; instead, it makes all functionality available from a keyboard. People with disabilities can then also use speech input or use other assistive technologies that mimic the keyboard.
Video and audio. Providing a text transcript makes audio information accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Being able to listen to a text when there is not enough light to read, or when multitasking, and being able to read subtitles in a noisy environment are also important.