Web accessibility standards in libraries

Abstract

Website creating which is compatible with accessibility standards is kind of best practices. These standards enable to extend group of information users such as: people with disabilities, people who encounter incompatibility and technological problems and seniors. Communication via website is, or should be, an important sphere of library activity. In many countries accessibility standards related to public institutions are required by law. Especially it is worth paying attention on the standards proposed by W3C Consortium called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). 15th October 2012 they gained the status of the international standard ISO/IEC 40500:2012 Information technology - W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Paper will be an attempt to answer on questions, if libraries apply these standards and what kind of defects and facilities can be found on web pages. There will be performed an analysis of accessibility of selected national libraries' websites. The research is financed by National Science Centre based on grant DEC-2011/01/N/HS2/01062.