Improving Web Accessibility by Providing Higher Education Facilities for Web Designers and Web Developers Following the Design for All Approach

The Web in its origin has been a purely text-based medium. But when the Web started to be used also as a commercial platform, design and graphical representation became more and more important. During that process, most Web developers did not follow a design for all approach, and therefore, the Web became less and less usable for people with disabilities. In the last years, people got aware of this problem, and the keyword "Web accessibility" has become rather popular. But to really make progress and make the Web more accessible again, the problem has to be solved at the root: Web developers have to be aware of how to build accessible sites. In Austria, there is currently no possibility for Web developers to gain a comprehensive education in the field of Web accessibility. Therefore, the Institute Integriert Studieren started to develop a postgraduate course in order to fill this gap.