New Irish IT accessibility guidelines

Announcement: New Irish IT accessibility guidelines

The Irish National Disability Authority (NDA) has released a set of
accessibility guidelines covering a wide range of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT). They are available on the web at
http://accessIT.nda.ie.

The guidelines are aimed at procurers and developers of ICT products and
services and initially cover the following technologies.

* Public access terminals (ATMs, information kiosks, ticket machines, card
readers, etc.)
* Websites and online applications
* Telecoms (fixed phones, mobile phones, Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
systems)
* Application software

The main aim of the guidelines is to create a usable resource, written in
plain language, that will provide explanation and assistance to developers
and procurers who wish to specify, create or evaluate accessible ICT
products and services.

The NDA have created new guidelines for three of the four technology areas -
public access terminals, telecoms and application software. However, there
already exists an internationally agreed standard set of guidelines for the
web - the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 from the Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The NDA has not, therefore, created its own
guidelines for the web, but has included the WAI guidelines with the
addition of some extra explanation and help.

The NDA would welcome any feedback, comment or criticism of its guidelines
and how they are presented. Although every attempt has been made to provide
a useful and usable resource which is accessible to WAI priority 3, this is
only the first release and there are undoubtedly areas that can be improved
and enhanced. The NDA intends to maintain and develop its guidelines to
ensure that they continue to provide useful guidance for developers and
procurers. Comments should be emailed to guidelines@frontend.com.

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 Irish National Disability Authority
 IT Accessibility Guidelines

 Web: accessIT.nda.ie
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Received on Tuesday, 2 July 2002 11:32:04 UTC