Web accessibility
A lot of work has gone into trying to make this site as accessible as possible for people with disabilities. This section provides general information about website accessibility and specific information about the special features that have been built into this site to make it easier to use by people with a wide range of disability.
More information about web accessibility.
Contents
- What's so important about web accessibility?
- Our commitment to web accessibility.
- Product catalogue images.
- Guidelines for documents published on this website.
What's so important about web accessibility?
If websites are built to allow people with disability to use them they may have the following benefits:
- Making it easier for people with different types of disability to get to and use information on the Internet;
- Helping people with a disability to 'connect' with others who use the Internet in a way that makes their disability 'invisible' or not important (unless they choose to provide this information);
- Lessening the feeling of being alone that often goes with not being able to move around or communicate very well;
- Helping some people who have trouble communicating to communicate faster and to be more easily understood by others (when doing this by writing), and
- Giving some people with disabilities the extra time they need to put together a message and to think through the information received.
These benefits can only happen if people with a disability can use the Internet without barriers. Sadly, there are still lots of websites with many barriers for people with disabilities, although this is slowly beginning to change.
Since the end of 2000, Australian government laws required all web sites of federal government to have a minimum level of accessibility for disabled people. Organisations can now be taken to court if they do not provide website access for people with disabilities.
Our commitment to web accesibility
Many sites in the past have concentrated on being accessible for people who have difficulties with body movements or understanding complicated language. This site has tried to tackle these areas so that as many people with many different forms of disability will be able to use the site. All this has been done in one version of the site rather than having an extra text-only site for people with disability. We are committed to improving the accessibility of this site into the future, taking advantage of new technologies as they develop.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have, over a period of time, developed a set of 14 guidelines that are recommended to be used when building websites, to make sure that they are as accessible as possible for those with disabilities. We have attempted to meet, and in some cases, exceed the highest level set for each of the guidelines.
Guidelines for documents published on this website.
We are working to ensure that all documents in P.D.F. format published on this website meet accessibility guidelines. If you are submitting a document for publication on this website please ensure you follow our Guidelines - Document for Posting on Novita Websites. This information can be found on the downloads page of the Novita website.
This page last updated: 8 August 2012
URL for this page: http://www.novitatech.org.au/content.asp?p=443
