Introduction - Web Accessibility

Abstract

Previous engineering approaches seem to have precluded the engineering of accessible systems. This is plainly unsatisfactory. Designers, authors, and technologist are at present playing 'catch-up' with a continually moving target in an attempt to retrofit systems. In fact engineering accessible interfaces is as important as their functionality's and should be an indivisible part of the development. We should be engineering accessibility as part of the development and not as afterthought or because government restrictions and civil law requires us to. Our workshop brought together a cross section of the Web design and engineering communities; to report on developments, discuss the issues, and suggest cross-pollinated solutions. Conventional workshops on accessibility tended to be single disciplinary in nature. However, we were concerned that a single disciplinary approach prevents the cross-pollination of ideas, needs, and technologies from other related but separate fields. The workshop was therefore, decidedly cross disciplinary in nature and brought together users, accessibility experts, graphic designers, and technologists from academia and industry to discuss how accessibility could be supported. We also encouraged the participation of users and other interested parties as an additional balance to the discussion. Views often bridged academia, commerce, and industry and arguments encompassed a range of beliefs across the design-accessibility spectrum. Our aim was to focus on accessibility by encouraging participation from many disciplines; represented in the following discussion and paper abstracts.