Unlocking the Gates to the Kingdom: Designing Web Pages for Accessibility.

As the use of the Web is perceived to be an effective tool for dissemination of research findings for the provision of asynchronous instruction, the issue of accessibility of Web page information will become more and more relevant. The World Wide Web consortium (W3C) has recognized a disparity in accessibility to the Web between persons with and without disabilities and has responded by developing a set of Web page design standards that specifically address the issue of Web accessibility. The W3C has embraced the issue of accessibility through its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) . The WAI has developed a set of guidelines, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, for use by Web page authors to incorporate accessibility features into the design of Web pages. The purpose of this paper is to describe Web page design principles and strategies based on the WAI's guidelines that will facilitate the development of Web pages that open the gates of the virtual kingdom to persons with disabilities. Web page authoring tips are provided for using the following in a Web page: tables, frames, multimedia, color and backgrounds, and hyperlinks, as well as using alternative Web pages. (AEF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY