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Principles of Accessible Design
The issue of accessible Web design for people with disabilities and other
special needs has recently become a topic of great concern. Why should developers
take the time to ensure that Web-based resources are based on universal design
principles? There are several factors that should motivate us to learn about
accessible design, and implement it in our online programming. The first is
a fundamental ideal that access to information and education is one of our
basic human rights.
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Making the Web more accessible is largely dependent upon using HTML the way
it was intended: to encode meaning and structure, rather than control layout
and visual formatting. Some years ago, the introduction of graphical browsers,
lead to a variety of new official and unofficial HTML formats which were quickly
taken up by Web designers. Adaptation of the structure of HTML for aesthetic
purposes compromises the accessibility of the site using non-visual, or non-conventional
browsers.
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