Ok, this is going to be long-winded but is an answer to several of the above postings!
Wow! I sure opened a can of worms here with the Accessibility issues. But I am glad folks are looking into it. Yes, it may mean some work if you need to redo your site for compliance. But, if you are just beginning to design a site, you should be aware of the issues and build and design your site with the accessibility features in mind.
It really isn't difficult. I don't know what the laws are in other countries but I will repeat what I know here. It is US FEDERAL LAW that all federal agency web sites must be compliant (
will give you info)..It is also law in NEW YORK STATE for all state agency (including school districts) web sites to be accessibile.
Priority 1 MUST be reached. We strive for Priority 3 as well. New York State and the US Federal Govt. are using the U.S. Section 508 Guidelines for our guidelines.
I use Dreamweaver exclusively now since i can code in various ways. Dreamweaver 4 has an Accessibility Extension that you can download to help you. It can be downloaded from
You probably have to register in order to d/l it.
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX provides the most complete set of tools available for building, editing, and maintaining accessible websites and web applications. Flash MX can also build accessible Flash files.
Macromedia has been at the forfront of building applications that allow for design of accessible sites. You can always go to their web wite and search for Accessibility.
Dirtrocker: It ISN"T a ton of work to go through. Professional site designers realize that we want our sites available to the largest amount of people as possible. We just design our sites with that in mind and the accessibility issues are not a setback at all.
20 percent of the total U.S. population have some type of a disability. I certainly don't want to lose that share of the market if they can't access my web site due to simple editing that I can do!
Thanks for your support, Wullie. Since you are from the UK, your laws are probably different. Anything going on there regarding the accessibility issues and web sites from the governement?
Regards,
Lexus
PS: No, I have NO disabilities, in case anyone was wondering. Unless you count my fanaticism with the Internet since 1993 (if not earlier) as a disability! **Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.**