Web Accessibility = Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate (or community) social responsibility (CSR), also known as corporate citizenship, is conducting an organization in such a way that treats internal and external stakeholders ethically, increases human development, and positively impacts society and the environment. Web accessibility is an integral part of CSR in demonstrating an organization's commitment to providing equal opportunities. An inaccessible website can undermine an organization's other CSR efforts.

People with disabilities are often excluded from various aspects of society, largely due to inaccessible buildings and services. When an organization's Web site is not accessible, it further excludes people with disabilities. When an organization's web site is accessible, it empowers people with disabilities to participate more fully in society. Providing an accessible web site is one way an organization can demonstrate that it strives to meet the access needs of a diverse society.

Web accessibility benefits people with and without disabilities alike. For example, an accessible web site increases access for these groups:

1. Older people:
   • Age-related visual deterioration benefits from colour contrast, adjustable font size, non-blinking or -moving text
   • Failing or shaky hand function benefits from enabling keyboard interaction, rather only mouse use [i.e. device independence]
   
   
2. People with low literacy and speakers of other languages benefit from:
   • Clear and simple language
   • Consistent and clear navigation
   • Blocks of information divided into groups
   • Also, accessible sites can be read by screen readers so people who cannot read can benefit from listening to sites
   
   
3. People with low bandwidth connections to the Internet and older technologies benefit from such features as:
   • Text descriptions of images for when they turn off images to speed up download
   • Effectively used style sheets to separate content from presentation decreases file size and file download requirements thus increasing download speed
   • Using only valid W3C technologies means sites are more likely to work on older technologies
   • Sites usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported
   • Clear and consistent design, navigation and links helps users open the pages they want and saves wasted page loading time from going down the wrong path
   
   
4. New and infrequent web users benefit from:
   • Clear and consistent design, navigation, and links
   • Providing redundant text links for image maps
   • Informing users of new browser windows opening
   
   

In addition to enhancing CSR initiatives, Web accessibility has technical and financial benefits.