Why should you make your web page accessible?

The universities nowadays are developing, by transferring from buildings to Web and internal networks. But one of the most ardent problems there is that complicates the access of the impaired to studies is the absences of accessible technology for the disabled students. The solution for this is the creation of accessible web pages. This is also necessary in order to comply with the national legislation, especially concerning the disabled persons. The universities work hard on assuring the academic equality and non discrimination in the access to the informative resources. The accessible web pages are also compatible with new technologies and are beneficial for all the visitors.  They can be used by any beneficiary notwithstanding any constraints under which they operate. Some persons with disabilities are imposed to use special means in order to access internet as text-to-speech screen readers and other special devices. In many cases these persons have a keyboard-only access to web. In many cases the software developers and can improve the accessibility of web resources for the impaired solving many impediments created by physical impairments, blindness, low vision and learning difficulties.

Also the accessible web sites make the web content accessible for those who use new mobile and hand held technologies like handheld PDA, mobile phone, voice browser. Also these improvements will assist those who work in unfavourable environments for example in a room with no light, in spaces with a big noise pollution etc. Another plus for web accessible content is the simplicity of search.

The pluses of this technology can be shown in the case of a visual impaired user of internet. These persons usually use screen readers, to access text information, while the graphics and images are not accessed. The Web creators solved a part of this problem attaching screen-readable alternative text to graphics and links, organizing the text in a logical reading order. This technology can also benefit the users that have low bandwidth connections using text-based browsers to surf more quickly. Also PDA users can disable graphics for quicker page downloads. And with increasing the content availability as text or alt-text a more effective search is possible.