The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines Web accessibility as the ability for people to navigate, perceive, understand, and interact with the Web.
Websites such as LibGuides should be designed to accommodate auditory, cognitive, speech, and visual disabilities. Web accessibility also benefits users with motor limitations due to age, temporary disabilities such as broken arms, and situational limitations such as bright light, small screens, or mobile devices.
The W3C published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 in 2008. The guidelines have been updated with versions 2.1 and 2.2 as technology has required updated recommendations. UCF's Digital Accessibility policy currently requires conformity with WCAG 2.0 AA.
WCAG 2.0 is based on four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive (e.g. contrast ratio and alternative text for images)
Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable (e.g. meaningful hyperlinks)
Understandable: Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable (e.g. consistent navigation)
Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies (e.g. complete start and end tags)
To read more about the four principles, visit the W3C page Understanding the Four Principles of Accessibility. WCAG 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Review the full list of WCAG 2.0 recommendations.