This is a work-in-progress web site for the document "Macromedia Accessibility Solutions for Australia". The work is intended to provide an overview of resources available to make the web more accessible to people with a disability. It is adapted from U.S. material that addressed the requirements of Section 508 of the U.S. 1974 Rehabilitation Act. Section 508 prohibits U.S. federal agencies from buying, developing, maintaining, or using electronic and information technology that is inaccessible to people with disabilities. This includes web-based technology, and other information technologies.
The criteria for web-based technology developed for 508 are based on access guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C guidelines are frequently cited in Australian guidelines on the use of the web. Those with an interest in accessibility of the web, and in particular the Australian context, are invited to contribute content, comments and corrections. The results will form part of the Macromedia Accessibility Resource Centre for use by web developers.
This first draft has cleaned up some of the formatting and converted the U.S. document from Microsoft Word to HTML to make the document easier to distribute. Later drafts will add more detail at what are the Australian equivalents to 508, what differing guidelines should be used and if developers should 508 as well as Australian standards. Some of the 508 references may then be deleted.
Tom Worthington
TomW Communications Pty Ltd
PO Box 13
Belconnen ACT 2617
Australia
E-mail: as@tomw.net.au
Ph: 02 62629393 Int: +61 2 62629393
John Treloar
Country Manager
Macromedia Inc - Australia & New Zealand
E-mail: jtreloar@macromedia.com