Where Do We EndExclusion?

Recently an initiative has been started by the Council for Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) and backed with partners such as the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC). This short term initiative is named "End Exclusion" and their website is www.endexclusion.ca. On the website it states:

Building an Inclusive and Accessible Canada and Supporting People With Disabilities (PWD's).

All excellent statements and upon your first visit using a screen reader the Website appears to be reasonably accessible, however web accessibility is for more than just screen readers, so when you do a little checking you find that things aren't so accessible after all.

When checked against the World Wide Web Consortiums (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG) athttp://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ you'll find that the site barely meets the minimum standards for web accessibility and therefore will create Accessibility problems for many disabilities. . These guidelines have been around since 1999 and when implemented properly will make websites accessible to the widest range of internet user. There are a few extra bells and whistles, but this site is hardly inclusive.

When 2 AEBC Board members were asked why they had put their name to this site when it is not accessible to all PWD's, their initial response Was, "there is nothing wrong with the site". When told that the site deserves arguably 2 leafs under their own Web Accessibility Ratings Initiative, their response was, "I'll just sit back and relax, until someone does send us an actual user experience". Pardon me?

The AEBC Rating initiative states:

It is our intention, by implementing such a rating system, that we will bring attention to accessible web design by encouraging other site owners and webmasters of the importance of making their sites accessible" and" A 2 leaf Signifies that the site passes Priority 1 and meets the minimum requirements for web accessibility as set out by WC3. Visitors to this site may experience difficulties navigating certain features of the site.

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If the AEBC is aware of accessible web design and knows the consequences of not being W3C compliant, then why should we have to complain first before it is made fully accessible? Isn't it one of the reasons we have Bill 118, so PWD's don't' have to find fault all of the time to have the same "access to information" as others? Let's be honest here, very few people have the time or inclination to give feedback, they expect the "So called experts" to do the job properly from the beginning. If the standards are already there and very well known, then why aren't they implemented to their fullest from the start? When groups promote such ideals as "Ending Exclusion" or "Building an Inclusive and Accessible Canada Supporting People with Disabilities" it is very upsetting to find their sites are not fully accessible. An accessible website is like an "electronic ramp" to many PWD's and by not meeting the highest standards possible when they are achievable, groups promoting accessibility and change are excluding the very people they are representing. While this site has a good beginning, we as a community should, by example demand higher standards from ourselves, especially when you consider that the theme of this years International Day of the Disabled pertains to web accessibility for all.

So where should the "Exclusion" end? For this observer it should start in our own backyard.

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Where Do We EndExclusion?