Websites should be designed to ensure that everyone, including users who have difficulty seeing, hearing, and making precise movements, can use them. Generally, this means ensuring that websites facilitate the use of common assistive technologies. All United States Federal Government websites must comply with the Section 508 Federal Accessibility Standards.

With the exception of Guideline 2:7 and Guideline 9:3, all accessibility related guidelines are found in this chapter. The sample of users who organized these guidelines assigned these two guidelines to other chapters.

Some of the major accessibility issues to be dealt with include:

• Provide text equivalents for non-text elements;
• Ensure that scripts allow accessibility;
• Provide frame titles;
• Enable users to skip repetitive navigation links;
• Ensure that plug-ins and applets meet the requirements for accessibility; and
• Synchronize all multimedia elements.

Where it is not possible to ensure that all pages of a site are accessible, designers should provide equivalent information to ensure that all users have equal access to all information.

For more information on Section 508 and accessibility, see http://www.section508.gov and http://www.usability.gov/accessibility/index.html .