What if you were deaf and the world around you were simply muffled vibrations instead of clear, crisp sounds?

How about if, when you awoke every morning, your world looked just like it did while you were asleep – pitch black?

For most of us, when we want to find out the latest news or do some online shopping, we simply open up our favorite Internet browser and sit back and relax.

The Internet drives our businesses and our personal lives by providing instant information at the touch of a key. What if you didn’t have the luxury of being able to see all of the content on your favorite website, though? What if you were visually impaired, and shopping for a new outfit on the Internet wasn’t as easy as clicking and looking?

Thanks to a national movement called the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), the 54 million Americans who are disabled will have more of a chance to use the Internet just like the rest of us.

The WAI is a part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and works in an effort to promote website accessibility worldwide. The WAI and the W3C work with disability organizations, government agencies and other key members to monitor website accessibility.

What does this mean to you and your business?

1. It means that in the very near future, the W3C will require that all commercial websites comply with WAI accessibility standards. You can visit http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/Overview.html to learn more about whether your website features potential accessibility problems.
2. Google and other search engines favor websites that comply with these standards. If your site is not in compliance, you are likely to get less than favorable results in the search engines!

The experts at Jaymunda will help to ensure that your website is WAI accessible. Whether your website needs accessibility assistance in captioned audio files, supplemental graphics or alternative text, Jaymunda has the expertise to help.

Why wait until the W3C requires that websites meet minimum accessibility standards before you act? There are 54 million Americans who deserve the chance to see what your company has to offer.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 7:43 pm and is filed under General Technology, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.