On this page we will investigate the reasons for accessibility from a technology perspective.

This section focuses on the fact that by implemeting an accessibile web site there can be inproved technical performance. An example of larger organisation this could be reducing in server loads and providing longevity for their hardware. For some other organisations, it could be being on on the cutting edge of technology. For some other sites, the technical benefits may not be an important issue.

Lets have a look at at some of the possible benefits for your organisation.

Reduced Server Load

By using Web standards, html, and CSS, along with accessibility techniques can reduce the need to upgrade or increase additional servers and increasing download speed. This can be done by:

• By using style sheets to define your presentation rather than using markup for each page and using text rather than bitmap text images the size of each page is therefore reduced.
• Providing clear and consistent design, link and navigation, this reduces unwanted page downloads and therefore server requests.
• Including alternative text for images and transcripts for multimedia files reduces downloads of large multimedia and image files. This can provide low bandwidth users the option to browse pages having to view the images.

Reduced of development and maintenance time

While the initial development time creating an accessibile web site may increase, in the longer term it can reduce the amount of time and therefore costs, spends on maintenance and further development of the site. Some of the benefits are:

• To change the style and design of the web site using external style sheets is simplified. This includes fonts, font sizes, colours. If however the presentation is in the HTML coding, the markup would need to be changed for each of the web site pages.
• Reduces both development and maintenance of the site by having one accessible version of your site, rather than multiple versions
• For foreign languages sites, there is also added benefits in use of style sheets as it reduces the translation time and skills required.
• Using and conforming to web standards and accessibility guidlines allows for efficent debugging of sites using the automated validation tools as defined by your DOCTYPE.

Different configurations and new technologies

In many organisations, there is and increasing interest in web interoperability. this allows for web contant to be displayed and interacted with using different devices such as mobile phones, PDA's as well as operating systems and the various web browsers available.

With the constant development of new technologies, web sites need to be able to have both forward and backwards compatibility. This again can be achieved through the use of style sheets to define the presentation and using correct markup structure. Using the latest standards greatly assists with this.