The primary purpose of these HTML/XHTML Best Practices is to improve the accessibility of web resources at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign for students, faculty, staff, and the general public.
The typical approach to web accessibility is a "repair" approach which focuses on meeting the technical requirements of either the Section 508 or W3C WCAG 1.0 accessibility standards. This accessibility repair usually results in the resources becoming more "technically accessible" but still remaining functionally unusable by many people with
For all the reasons mentioned above, mentioned above, the accessibility and usability of a web site should be a fundamental underlying concern for any web site open to the public, but especially one providing health information or information about a health resource (such as a clinic).
The World Wide Web Consortium agreed that this concept was so important, that early on they organized a task force to define basic recommendations for accessibility and usability of all web sites. These standards were released in 1999.
The United States goverment
In an effort to address the needs of all users, the Illinois Technology Office has established the Illinois Web Accessibility Standards (IWAS). On February 14, 2002, the Governor of Illinois signed an Administrative Order directing Illinois agencies to "utilize the Illinois Web Accessibility Standards for the development of web sites, intranets, and web-based applications."
These standards are based on Federal "Section 508" and World Wide Web Consortium accessibility guidelines, which were reviewed extensively by a panel of experts during the
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