With the increasing use of the World Wide Web for commerce, research, social interactions and almost anything else you can think of, more and more blind or visually impaired persons are going on-line.  While many web sites work well with the assistive technology used by blind or visually impaired persons, some do not.

If you are a web master or web developer and accessibility problems are brought to your attention, or you may have been told to make that new site accessible, you may not know where to turn.  Below are a few resources to get you started.  Further, the Adaptive and Assistive Technology Unit of Minnesota State Services for the Blind will, as time and other work permit, take a quick look at web sites of Minnesota companies and organizations and let you know how you are doing.  For more information on this service contact David Andrews.

Here are some resources:

Minnesota Accessibility and Usability Web Page: http://www.starprogram.state.mn.us/Accessibility_Usability.htm

Web Accessibility (W3C) Homepage: http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Jim Thatcher: http://www.jimthatcher.com/book2.htm

Texas School for the Blind- List of Resources: http://www.tsbvi.edu/technology/www-access.htm

Web Accessibilty Wikkipedia Listing- A general article but does have a bibliography with additional tools: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility

IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center Website: http://www-03.ibm.com/able/guidelines/web/accessweb.html

University of Minnesota- Annotated list of resources on accessible Web
design, as well as low-cost or no-cost tools: http://cap.umn.edu/ait/web/ResourcesAndTools.html

University of Minnesota Accessibility of Information Technology Web site:
http://cap.umn.edu/ait/index.html

This is a  website you can use to check a site for accessibility to people with disabilities:
http://webxact.watchfire.com/

The following link provides the Nonvisual Technology Access Standards that must be included in all Minnesota contracts for the procurement of information technology by, or for the use of, agencies, political subdivisions , and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.  http://ros.leg.mn/bin/getpub.php?pubtype=STAT_CHAP_SEC&year=current&section=16C.145

In addition, we encourage callers to simply Google "web accessibility" and check out the various resources. You will find many resources. There are plenty of books, training courses and consultants that are available also.