Due to the fact that approximately one out of five Americans has a disability, in 1990 Congress signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a piece of federal legislation that "prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, programs and services provided by state and local governments, goods and services provided by private companies, and in commercial facilities." (Please see the U.S. Department of Justice "ADA homepage," located at the URL http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm, if you'd like more information.)
So what exactly does this have to do with web sites or private universities?
First of all, according to the United States Justice Department, the ADA also applies to communications regarding an entity's programs or services. In an opinion letter dated September 9, 1996, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that: "Covered entities under the ADA are required to provide effective communication, regardless of whether they generally communicate through print media, audio media, or computerized media such as the Internet. Covered entities that use the Internet for communications regarding their programs, goods, or services must be prepared to offer those communications through accessible means as well."
Secondly, Title III of the ADA covers public accommodations and commercial facilities such as private businesses and non-profit service providers...in other words, institutions like Rensselaer. And since Congress is currently considering the extent to which the ADA applies to web sites, we would do well to begin designing our sites with an eye toward accessibility issues. Content accessibility concerns not only those with physical or mental disabilities, but those with technical limitations as well, so designing for accessibility is, in short, "universal design". Newer devices for accessing the web, like cellular phones and personal digital assistants, will be able to access information on the web if it is properly coded; similarly, "low technology" (like the older browsers) will able to access "high technology" (like your database-driven web site) if accessibility is built into the web page. Designing for accessibility ensures that all of your users, regardless of their personal limitations or their computing environment, will be able to retrieve your information and make sense of it, so remember that the closer you design to the standards, the more accessible your site will be for everyone.
True accessibility requires full compliance with all of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) web page authoring "recommendations" (i.e., requirements, definitions, standards). This not only includes the specifications for HTML, CSS, and other markup languages, but another set of recommendations called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as well, approved in October of last year. These guidelines spell out precisely what constitutes accessibility and then outline three priority levels of compliance. We can think of the first, second and third priorities as what we must, should and could do respectively. Please refer to the following URL for more on the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative, including the guidelines themselves and techniques for compliance: http://www.w3.org/WAI/
The HTML Writer's Guild also sponsors AWARE, the accessible web authoring resources and education center, a valuable resource for achieving web content accessibility. The AWARE web site features a large array of articles and other resources on accessibility. To check your web page(s) for accessibility, try Bobby, a validation service from the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), located at the URL http://www.cast.org /bobby/. While Bobby cannot catch all potential accessibility problems, it serves as a great starting point for assessing your web pages' accessibility. In the near future, RPInfo will also provide links to accessibility resources for the sake of bringing Rensselaer in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and, more importantly, the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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