Users with Disability Need Not Apply? Web Accessibility in Ireland, 2002

Users with a variety of disabilities can potentially benefit greatly from using the Internet to mediate their access to products and services; however, this relies on the proper server side design of Web sites to facilitate such access. Design of accessible Web content is codified in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Compliance with WCAG (and/or similar, derivative, guidelines) is now the subject of considerable activity, both legal and technical, in many different jurisdictions. Within this overall international context, this paper reports on a project to carry out an automated baseline survey of WCAG compliance of Web sites based in Ireland. Summary results are presented and discussed. Recommendations are made for policy action, relevant both in Ireland and beyond.