Abstract
Accessibility guidelines are aimed at all those with a role and responsibility in the procurement and development of IT products and services. However, many important members of this diverse audience find these guidelines difficult to use. The result is products with in-built accessibility barriers. This paper describes the structure and presentation of a new set of Irish national IT accessibility guidelines. Drawing lessons from past failures, it describes how this structure was developed. The development involved extensive consultation with prospective users of the guidelines, in an inclusive user-centred process. Preliminary feedback at this early stage indicates that the new structure is effective, even in the absence of legislation. The account underlines the importance of usability in creating useful resources of this type.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Council of the European Union, Commission of the European Communities: eEurope 2002: An Information Society for All, Action Plan. June 2000. http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/action_plan/pdf/actionplan_en.pdf
Information Society Commission: Information Society Ireland: Third Report. December 2000. http://www.isc.ie/thirdreport.html
Irish Government, Department of an Taoiseach: Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. February 2000. http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/upload/publications/310.pdf
Irish Government, Department of an Taoiseach: Web Publication: Recommended Guidelines for Public Sector Organisations. November 1999. http://www.irlgov.ie/taoiseach/publication/webpg/guidelines.htm
Colwell, C., Petrie, H.: Evaluation of Guidelines for Designing Accessible Web Content. IFIP TC.13 INTERACT’99 Workshop: Making Designers Aware of Existing Guidelines for Accessibility. (31 August 1999). http://www.info.fundp.ac.be/IFIP13-3/INT99workshop-accessibility.htm#9
Colwell, C., Petrie, H.: Evaluation of Guidelines for Designing Accessible Web Content. In: Buhler, C., Knops, H. (eds.): Assistive Technology on the Threshold of the New Millennium. (AAATE 99). Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1999.
Vanderheiden, G., Chisholm, W.: Requirements for WCAG 2.0. W3C Working Draft dated 26 April 2002. http://www.w3.org/TR/wcag2-req/
Vanderheiden, G.: Fundamental Principles and Priority Setting for Universal Usability. http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/fundamental_princ_and_priority_acmcuu2000/
Chisholm, W., Vanderheiden, G., Jacobs, I.: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. W3C Recommendation 5-May-1999, see http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
Vanderheiden, G.: Addition to the Record: House Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing on “The Applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to Private Internet Sites”. 9 February, 2000. http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ada_internet_hearing/#economic_motivation
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Donnelly, A., Magennis, M. (2003). Making Accessibility Guidelines Usable. In: Carbonell, N., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access Theoretical Perspectives, Practice, and Experience. UI4ALL 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2615. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36572-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36572-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00855-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36572-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive