Enabling an Accessible Web 2.0

Enabling an Accessible Web 2.0
Article Summary by:
Gwendolyn Jeffries
This article was written by Becky Gibson and has very interesting information in it containing what is web 2.0 which was very helpful to me because I am not familiar with it. At the beginning of the Article Ms. Gibson wrote information on how the web has been used for people with disability stating that the web has opened up many opportunities for people with disability. The web is used by this population and as I see it being used by all as a means of working, learning, entertainment. I am in agreement with her when she stated that the web is constantly changing. There are different ways a person access information on the web. The article speaks about the ways in which the web is used such as social networking, work, and collaboration. In the article Ms. Gibson stated that web 2.0 was coined at a conference in 2004 by O’Reilly Media. The article states that the most widely used technologies beyond basic HTML for implementing Web 2.0 are Scripting and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The use of JavaScript to make web sites more dynamic is steadily growing and CSS is increasing even faster. The web was once perceived as a mechanism to provide information, but with the changes today it is an interactive and harnessed the wisdom of many through wiki, blogs and communities. It was stated in the article that the user of the technology must be familiar with how to use the keyboard to navigate to items. This is done by using the tab key on the keyboard to stroll to items that are needed. Many of the interface providers install the necessary software for users to create a presence on the web. Today, anyone can create web pages, blogs, and wikis by using simple tools. Accessibility is important and needs to be built into the tools. It is important first to enable toolkits with accessibility, then applications built using these toolkits will inherit accessibility.