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Accessibility is focused on the design of barrier-free products for older users and users with disabilities. Compliance to standardized guidelines, such as the WAI’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, are the primary method of developing accessible products. However many studies have shown that the majority of websites are not accessible. For this reason, there is an abundance of literature proposing new methods or technology for developing or evaluating accessibility of websites. Customization (Richards, Hanson, 2004), disability simulators (Asakawa, 2005), heuristics (Pattison, 2004), and patterns (Zajicek, 2004) are some proposed approaches. Most authors question the effectiveness of solely depending on guidelines to develop accessible websites. There is much overlap between the concepts of accessibility, universal design and usability, especially as authors discuss the need for the involvement of users in the development of accessible websites. On the other hand, several authors, such as Nielson, 2000 and Takagi, 2004, assert that user testing for accessibility is impractical. Some further tools exist for testing purposes such as read-aloud browsers (readers) or text browsers. JAWS or FireVox are two common read-aloud browsers or extensions that help to assess accessibility. Online text browser emulations such as Lynx emulation could be also of some use. References
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