You might be wondering "what does accessibility have to do with the web?".

For one, if you are a federal government entity or an organization who receives federal funding in the U.S., Canada or Australia, then you are required by law to have a website that is accessible by all.

For others of you, your website may turn away 10-20% of its visitors because of lack of accessibility.

Here are a few examples of websites that are not accessible.

An elderly person who has less than 20/20 vision has difficulty reading small screen text. The user has set the browser to enlarge any website text, but the website code sets the text at a non-resizable absolute text.

An individual who is using a text-based browser or a screen reader (maybe the person is blind) is not provided text equivalents for site graphics. This is especially troubling if graphics are used as main navigational links.

There are several other issues besides resizable text and text equivalents. Such issues include accessible forms and the development of table layouts that make sense to both the ear as well as to the eye.