Web Accessibility Research

Posted on November 30, 2008

Why use web standards?

Standards are written so that old browsers will still understand the basic structure of a document and will be able to display the content of a site. Not only does this mean allowing the web to be used by people with disabilities, but also allowing web pages to be understood by people using browsers other than the usual ones – including voice browsers that read web pages aloud to people with sight impairments, Braille browsers that translate text into Braille, hand-held browsers with very little monitor space, teletext displays, and other unusual output devices.

As the variety of web access methods increases, adjusting or duplicating websites to satisfy all needs will become increasingly difficult. Following standards is a major step towards solving this problem.

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