1. Unlocking Potential Web Site Accessibility: Too Difficult To Implement? Brian Kelly, UKOLN David Sloan, University of Dundee Dr Neil Witt, University of Plymouth

2. Unlocking Potential Why is it an issue? The desirability of Web site accessibility has been featured regularly at ILI conferences. Delegates are likely to be familiar with W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and legislation such as: SENDA and DDA in the UK; Section 508 in the US.

3. Unlocking Potential Why is it an issue? The desirability of Web site accessibility is widely acknowledged. A legal and moral obligation? However the difficulties and costs of measuring and implementing accessibility are often ignored. It can be difficult to raise such concerns without appearing to be 'politically incorrect'.

4. Unlocking Potential Session Aims To stimulate debate by illustrating: The problems found in the UK HE community; Usability, legal and policy issues; The need for inclusivity of all stakeholders.

5. Unlocking Potential Panel members Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus - a JISC- funded post which advises the UK's higher and further education communities on Web developments David Sloan is Project Lead of the Digital Media Access Group, a Web accessibility research and consultancy group based in the Division of Applied Computing at the University of Dundee.

6. Unlocking Potential Panel members Dr Neil Witt is coordinator of the Communications and Learning Technologies Research (CoLT) group at the University of Plymouth. Neil is currently seconded to the Institute for Science Education (ISE) and is a TechDis Associate.

7. Unlocking Potential An introduction to WAI Web site developers should be aware of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which develops interoperable technologies specifications, guidelines software tools ‘to lead the Web to its full potential as a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding' (W3C, 2002).

8. Unlocking Potential WAI 1.ensuring that Web technologies support accessibility 2.developing guidelines for accessibility 3.developing tools to evaluate & facilitate accessibility 4.conducting education and outreach 5.coordinating with research and development.

9. Unlocking Potential WAI W3C have researched and developed extensive guidelines for the use of Web technologies such as HTML, XML and CSS These should be used to generate products that are not only good for users with disabilities, but also interoperable across a multitude of platforms.

10. Unlocking Potential WCAG W3C have produced a list of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0. This is a hierarchical structure consisting of three priority levels.

11. Unlocking Potential Priority 1 (Level A) A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.

12. Unlocking Potential Priority 2 (Level AA) A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.

13. Unlocking Potential Priority 3 (Level AAA) A Web content developer may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.

14. Unlocking Potential Using WAI Adherence to the WAI guidelines does not guarantee accessibility for a specific individual. WAI guidelines may be open to interpretation and debate………..