Predictions
There are three major factors that will shape web
accessibility in the future: AJAX, user generated content and WCAG 2.0. The increased prominence of these
factors could lead to some of the following:
Accessibility will become less and less
guideline-driven
With the advent of new technology (such as AJAX),
and the technology-neutral and vague nature of the new W3C guidelines (WCAG
2.0), accessibility is becoming less and less guideline driven. This means that
employing accessibility experts is going to become more and more important for
organisations as interpreting these guidelines correctly will become more and
more difficult.
Alternative accessible versions will become the
norm
Historically speaking, separate accessible
versions were frowned on for both ethical and business reasons (see Separate text-only version? No thanks!7 for more on this). However, for the first time usability
and accessibility are coming head-to-head with each other and rich interactive
interfaces often can't be made fully accessible. In this instance, a separate
version will have to be provided (but only after all other routes have been
exhausted).
User generated content is likely to offer poor
accessibility
Content created by users is becoming more and more
commonplace on the web. This kind of content is being created at such a rapid
rate that it's going to be impossible to police it for accessibility.
JavaScript, PDF &
Flash will no longer be thought of as 'evil'
In WCAG 1.0, web managers and developers were
basically told that their websites shouldn't rely on any of these three
technologies. WCAG 2.0 on the other hand doesn't stipulate
this, and rightly so as most assistive technologies can now support these
technologies