The eAccessibility Forum is a coalition made up of government, industry and voluntary bodies, working to ensure people who are disabled in the UK have equal access to information and technology. Launched by the UK Minister for Communications, Ed Vaizey, the website is part of the eAccessibility Forum’s web accessibility initiative and will inform the eAccessibility Action Plan.
The Action Plan includes a number of objectives, such as developing a regulatory framework for legislation and providing government and industry professionals with resources, information and guidelines on making their digital or web-based services accessible to everyone.
eAccessibility has outlined five areas of discussion that people may engage in on the forum website. These areas include the regulatory framework of eAccessibility, accessible consumer technology and digital equipment, website services, accessible content and building awareness of accessibility.
The forum website itself is a case study of accessible web design and development, having been made to comply with AAA standards. This is the highest level of accessibility set by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.
While discussion on the website’s message boards informs UK legislation and policy, the website opens web accessibility up for discussion on an international level. The message boards are accessible to anyone around the world. Web accessibility experts, information technology professionals and people with disabilities can share their thoughts, experiences and ideas online, potentially contributing to the improvement of the UK’s websites.
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