Since its invention four decades ago the internet has completely change our perception of information and communication. Nowadays most people can hardly imagine their life without the internet as it provides news, television, entertainment, communication and many other daily necessities. By revolutionize the way people access to information the internet is undoubtedly one of the best things ever happened to people with disabilities. As it opened up a whole new world of information for people, who are blind, deaf or have some kind of disabilities preventing from independent information consumption. Before the internet it was a great challenge for blind people to read a newspaper as Braille printouts were too bulky and expensive, and only one way to receive the information was to ask someone to read it for them, which made them dependent on others.

With advent of the internet most newspapers, directories and magazines turned to the Internet and published their content online, which in turn can be read by special screen readers used by blind. Suddenly, blind people don't have to use Braille or rely on other people to read the newspaper. For people with motor disabilities, who cannot pick up a newspaper and read it properly the Internet gives an access to online newspapers, which can be read on computers by using special assistive technologies and devices, while deaf people can read online transcripts of various multimedia content.

People with Disabilities on the Web
Though estimates vary, most studies find that about one fifth (20%) of the population has some kind of disability. Not all of these people have disabilities preventing from accessing the internet, but still it's represents a significant portion of population. For example in UK, one of the top connected nation, where many public services are already online and benefits payments are delivered electronically the disabled people represent approximately 12% of the adult population. So, the internet can make public services more convenient for people with disabilities, while businesses can reach in this way some additional 5-10 percent of potential customers.

Falling Short of the Web's Potential
Despite the internet's great potential for people with disabilities the idea wasn't received a wide support from the web community and its potential remains largely unrealized. Even though, several international web accessibility initiatives such as, Web Accessibility Initiative project by World Wide Web Consortium were started still most of web designers and developers don't follow their guidelines. As a result majority of websites are still inaccessible for people with disabilities.

Web 2.0 Challenge
The further development of the web and related technologies has initiated the move from text-based to visually oriented content. New components such as JavaScripts, AJAX, Dynamic HTML and Flash aimed to enrich content of the websites pose a serious threat for people with disabilities, especially blind people. Screen readers and other assistive technology may not be able to deal properly with all that new features turning into helpless things.

Before, when it were mainly text and picture based web content blind people can distinguish text from pictures, as screen readers identify the image with the help of special alternative-text tag, but now with Web 2.0, where rich user-interface build upon Ajax and dynamic HTML blind people don't even know where to click.

There were several proposals initiated by leading powerhouses in association with World Wide Web Consortium to add semantic role information to Web applications so screen readers can identify rich objects. But the proposals are still in a draft form and their adoption remains uncertain.

Some leading browsers are trying to work on the problem as well, however a fierce competition prevents them from cooperation and many initiatives like the one of Mozilla Foundation to add support for the technology in its Firefox browser aren't supported by others (Microsoft and its Internet Explorer). Instead, they're trying to play on their own, e.g. Microsoft introduced its own Adaptive Zoom, Caret Browsing and other features in its 8 version of explorer. But without unification and generalization single players cannot move the train from the place, moreover browsers themselves cannot decrypt JavaScripts, RIAs and widgets that reside on web sites.

According to the SecuritySpace Technology Penetration Report, more than 55% of all Web sites today contain JavaScript, dramatically affecting the ability for persons with disabilities to access Web content. New Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) render custom widgets, modeling rich desktop components to perform UI updates without having to reload the entire web page. So screen readers may not know which parts of the page have changed unless developers take steps to make sure the tools can glean that information.

Governments - early adopters
Most of developed countries already introduced series of web accessibility standards and guidelines and directed government and public organizations to follow them. However, basically accessibility standards spread only on federal government websites, while in the private sector there is less pressure and law enforcement. Even if allowance and some other incentives being made by some governments for the issues designers and web site owners deal with in complying with accessibility standards for many of them accessibility guidelines mean incomparable efforts and costs. And poor statistics from vendors of evaluation tools just prove a weak adoption of practice by private sector.

One of the leading vendors of evaluation tools, Watchfire Corp., has no more than 70 U.S.-based corporate customers and 30 international users, largely from the governmental and financial sectors, for its enterprise-grade tool. "We've long expected the accessibility market to grow more than it has. It really hasn't taken off," said Mike Weider - company's chief technology officer.

Some governments, however, changed their legislation to prompt private companies to adhere to accessibility issues. For example in UK disability discrimination is illegal and companies could find themselves being sued if their website is not accessible. In US, where standards set out in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, there were some cases of lawsuit claims to leading retailers and service groups because of their web sites were difficult if not impossible for use.

Different approach
While governments are trying to obligate private sector to comply with accessibility standards by introducing new laws and regulations many industry experts tend towards different approaches. The experts acknowledge that accessibility is good for all people with limitations or without and it is exactly the businesses that should set up the landmark for doing things right with accessibility in mind. After all, almost everyone benefits from properly-organized content and clear navigation as well as helpful illustrations and distinguishable links. There are also many economic reasons for a website to be accessible throughout browsers, phones and platforms.

The rapid growth of technology and communications re-invented the way people access the Internet brining it throughout devices and platforms. With more content needs to be available for mobile workers the accessibility already becomes an important subject across business industries. And the ability by industry to set up the landmark of delivering good accessible code for all users rather than specific platforms is seen by experts as a key to make the Internet more accessible.

Our commitment to accessibility

Levi9 Global Sourcing is working to promote an awareness of the issues around web accessibility in the Netherlands and cooperates with government and public organizations to ensure the compliance of their websites with accessibility standards of "drempelvrij.nl" foundation. The Quality Mark "drempelvrij.nl" Foundation aims to promote accessibility of Dutch websites for everyone, including people with disabilities and seniors.

Recently the company has successfully completed the implementation of two "drempelvrij.nl" accessible websites for ICTU - an organization founded by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and Association of the Netherlands Municipalities to optimize the government performance through enabling clever use of ICT.

The fact that there are only 9 other websites in the Netherlands to have achieved this underscores the commitment of both ICTU and Levi9 to leverage the use of generic IT solutions to improve the service to citizens and businesses and bring the Internet to all segments of the population.