Group Pushes for Web Sites Designed for All Internet Users Wall Street Journal (01/05/01); Becky Bright The federal government recently said its Web sites must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. Judy Brewer, director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a branch of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), says such a mandate should extend to all Web sites to benefit all users, not only those with a disability. Brewer argues that although the Web has provided several new opportunities for accessing information previously unavailable to those with disabilities, it has also made it more difficult to ensure that all individuals, regardless what their specific disability is, can access that information. For example, while a site may support screen-reading software for those with visual impairments, it may not provide captions for those with hearing impairments. In February 2000, WAI released the authoring tool accessibility guidelines (ATAG), a series of guidelines to assist Web designers in making sure their sites can be accessed by as many users as possible. Brewer also points out that Web authors now have access to numerous applications that can check to see if a site meets accessibility standards for individuals with disabilities. Brewer says owners of Web sites have four reasons for making their sites accessible. First, there are many individuals with disabilities - 54 million in the United States alone - and to ignore such a large demographic could be costly. Second, making sure that a site is accessible to those with disabilities will likely make it more friendly for all users. Third, some Web site owners, especially those who run sites for federal, state, and local governments, must make their sites accessible because of the law. Finally, she says site owners can make a statement about how much they are concerned about the community by making their sites accessible.