|
The most significant failures of accessibility stem from both programming and awareness. Our generation of students creating web pages for the first time is not aware of accessibility. They do not intuitively add alt tags (alternative text) to images unless it is a requirement of the assignment. The effect of this cause is more poorly-programmed inaccessible pages online. The problem is a lack of consciousness, not that the students do not care. If professors began to implement accessibility training into basic web-authoring lessons, students would learn how to make pages accessible from the beginning. With regard to pages already online, most web authors have not made efforts consciously or not to make their pages accessible, either.
Assimilating inaccessible multimedia into an accessible format is much more difficult, costly, and time-consuming that creating multimedia with accessibility in mind from the inception. What has happened is a minefield of inaccessible content online, with more uninformed people adding mines each day. If the real world has rules and laws governing accessibility for buildings and businesses (elevators, ramps, parking spaces), then why does the virtual world not have similar laws? The current situation with inaccessible multimedia creates an environment without equal rights for everyone. If all people cannot access the same information in alternative ways, then these people do not have equal rights.
The same equal rights should apply to the virtual world of multimedia. "In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act [by enacting Section 508] to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities" (http://www.section508.gov). Accessibility in the virtual world of multimedia is not as visible as it is in the real world; non-disabled users tend to not notice any accessible features whereas disabled users notice everything, whether it is accessible or not. Non-disabled users interact with a computer through a mouse and keyboard of some sort.
|
