What is Accessibility?

Accessibility simply means providing equal access to people with disabilties to information technology, including but not limited to websites. People with Disabilities use Assistive Technologies (AT) such as Screen Readers (technology for the Blind that translates text to speech). Making a website or software application accessible is done by changing the code (and coding habits) to conform to prevailing standards so that your website can be made available to assistive technologies. The changes are made "behind the scene" and don't impact the "look and feel" of your user interface.

Why make your website accessible?

Accessibility is closely related to usability. The more accessible your design, the more usable it is likely to be. Usability impacts every visitor of your website. In addition, making electronic and information technology accessible is important if you:

• have to meet the Section 508, DDA, or other standards by law
• have an e-commmerce website that may be required to be accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act (Read about the Target ADA Lawsuit)
• want to reach an audience that is aging. According to the "Aging of America"—close to 15 % of people 65 or older have special needs.
• Just want to do the right thing!

Still wondering if addressing the needs of this community makes business sense? Add to that the ethical and social value of not excluding anyone, bridging the digital divide, not creating a society of "have's" and "have not's" - even the Dilbert crowd would get it. This is not something that one can afford to ignore. Need further convincing? Think of the many veteran's returning home with a disability. The least we can do is even out the playing field by helping every individual be self sufficient in this knowledge economy.

How can we help - Deque solutions

Deque offers the most comprehensive, cost-effective, and easy solutions for making your Information Technology (IT) accessible to People with Disabilities. Whether you are looking for an Accessibility tools to bring in house or looking to outsource accessibility compliance. With our accessibility products and services, you can:

• automate a major part of testing for accessibility
• have our experts perform a manual test with assistive technologies such as JAWS, a popular screen reader widely used by the blind
• obtain the National Federation of the Blind Non-Visual access certification and join a growing group of companies committing to the NFB NVA seal
• become accessible using our Virtual Section 508 lab, a managed service providing the complete solution without any of the headaches
• subscribe to our Continuous Monitoring Service to get monthly reports on your progress towards accessibility
• get access to Worldspace Online, our enterprise web validation and repair tool now available as a Software as a Service (SaaS)
• instituionalize accessibilty by installing our best-of-breed Worldspace product on premise and having our experts train your staff

Benefits to your business

Accessibility of the web to people with disabilities is becoming increasingly important. Whether you are selling to the public sector around the world or want to sell to an aging population or simply consider it an essential element of your corporate social responsibility mission, we can help you get started.

For organizations concerned with the cost and sustainability of compliance, Deque Solutions offer a range of services and products that are sure to meet your needs. With Deque Solutions, you can:

• achieve rapid and predictable results with recognized leaders in the field of information accessibility.
• institutionalize accessibility with proven methods of adoption.
• improve productivity for your compliance efforts.
• get the best value for bringing accessibility into your Software Development Life Cycle.
• integrate into your workflow and existing products rather than using a point solution that doesn't play well with anything else.
• coordinate automated and interactive efforts.
• monitor efforts to drive continuous improvement.