Predictions
There are three major factors that will shape web
accessibility in the future: AJAX, user generated content and WCAG 2.0. The increased prominence of these
factors could lead to some of the following:
Accessibility will become less and less
guideline-driven
With the advent of new technology (such as AJAX),
and the technology-neutral and vague nature of the new W3C guidelines (WCAG
2.0), accessibility is becoming less and less guideline driven. This means that
employing accessibility experts is going to become more and more important for
organisations as interpreting these guidelines correctly will become more and
more difficult.
Alternative accessible versions will become the
norm
Historically speaking, separate accessible
versions were frowned on for both ethical and business reasons (see Separate text-only version? No thanks!7 for more on this). However, for the first time usability
and accessibility are coming head-to-head with each other and rich interactive
interfaces often can't be made fully accessible. In this instance, a separate
version will have to be provided (but only after all other routes have been
exhausted).
User generated content is likely to offer poor
accessibility
Content created by users is becoming more and more
commonplace on the web. This kind of content is being created at such a rapid
rate that it's going to be impossible to police it for accessibility.
JavaScript, PDF &
Flash will no longer be thought of as 'evil'
In WCAG 1.0, web managers and developers were
basically told that their websites shouldn't rely on any of these three
technologies. WCAG 2.0 on the other hand doesn't stipulate
this, and rightly so as most assistive technologies can now support these
technologies
This site goes through and describes how accessibility is difficult to maintain due mainly to user generated content. It mentioned Blogger and Flickr as 2 of them. One issue it examined was that of photos needing to be appropriately tagged, or given an alternative description.
Yes, Amanda. It also discussed YouTube being one of the websites as being difficult to use due to user generated content, just as Flickr and Blogger. Can the website owners provide a mechanism to ensure this content is produced accessibly?
Unfortunately, I don't see how it is possible to make each and every site easily accessible as this article seems to say. With the high rate of use and so many people posting content to YouTube, Blogger. Flickr, etc. it would be impossible to police. As stated, people could be encouraged to make their postings more accessible, but with everyone being so pressed for time, I don't think it would actually happen. Since computers are doing more thinking and becoming more intuitive, perhaps its brain will eventually make everything accessible for us?
