Article

This article asserts that current approaches to enhance the
accessibility of Web resources fail to provide a solid foundation for the
development of a robust and future-proofed framework. In particular, they fail to
take advantage of new technologies and technological practices. The article
introduces a framework for Web adaptability, which encourages the development of
Web-based services that can be resilient to the diversity of uses of such
services, the target audience, available resources, technical innovations,
organisational policies and relevant definitions of 'accessibility'. METHOD: The
article refers to a series of author-focussed approaches to accessibility through
which the authors and others have struggled to find ways to promote accessibility
for people with disabilities. These approaches depend upon the resource author's
determination of the anticipated users' needs and their provision. Through
approaches labelled as 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, the authors have widened their focus to
account for contexts and individual differences in target audiences. Now, the
authors want to recognise the role of users in determining their engagement with
resources (including services). To distinguish this new approach, the term
'adaptability' has been used to replace 'accessibility'; new definitions of
accessibility have been adopted, and the authors have reviewed their previous
work to clarify how it is relevant to the new approach. RESULTS: Accessibility
1.0 is here characterised as a technical approach in which authors are told how
to construct resources for a broadly defined audience. This is known as universal
design. Accessibility 2.0 was introduced to point to the need to account for the
context in which resources would be used, to help overcome inadequacies
identified in the purely technical approach. Accessibility 3.0 moved the focus on
users from a homogenised universal definition to recognition of the idiosyncratic
needs and preferences of individuals and to cater for them. All of these
approaches placed responsibility within the authoring/publishing domain without
recognising the role the user might want to play, or the roles that other users
in social networks, or even Web services might play. CONCLUSION: Adaptability
shifts the emphasis and calls for greater freedom for the users to facilitate
individual accessibility in the open Web environment.

Langue : ANGLAIS