Is web accessibility a human right?

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Source taken from : http://www.bcics.northwestern.edu/events/humanrights/

What is human right? Human right are basic rights and freedoms to which all of us are entitled. Some of the right include the right for work, the right to choose where we work, the right to access education. All of this rapidly becoming obtainable through one primary source that is the web. If one group of people is denied access to much of the web, therefore constitutes a denial of those human right that are exercised via the web.

The web is now so tightly integrated into our society that it is second nature to obtain the human rights properties. If the web is now a permanent and integral part of society, then is denying a group of people access to much of the web a form of discrimination and a denial of a human right?

Lets say if the web is unusable, who will be affected? People with disabilities will be affected where they are not able to participate in much that is offered on the web. They are computer users and able to be productive when using desktop application. Yet when it comes to accessing the web, they encounter many barriers that does not found in the general computer usage.

If you don't agree that web accessibility is a human right, then what it is? If web site accessibility is a human right, then all web sites should be accessible with a few exceptions. If web sites are open to the public then these web sites must offer equitable access to everyone who uses them, if not it is not fair for people with disability.

All the stakeholders in web technology have the obligation to make the web accessible for people with disability, yet most of them are doing little to progress web accessibility. For example, the authors of the next generation of HTML do nothing to make the language itself more accessible. Web authoring tool vendors are slow in implementing existing accessibility features.

With each passing day, a group of people are deprived of the right to choose their employment, have access to education because much of the web is inaccessible to them. Many stakeholders in web technology shirk any responsibility in their obligation to make the web accessible and instead tell these people to wait for future solutions. As what martin Luther king. Jr said " a right delayed is a right denied " .

So for me, I think that web accessibility is a human right thing. People with disability have the right to get the web accessible so they would uses the web technology wisely and fairly.

For more information please visit http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/is-web-accessibility-a-human-right/

Source : http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/is-web-accessibility-a-human-right/

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