"Web accessibility" simply means making your web site accessible to anyone using the Internet.
These users may or may not have physical disabilities. They might not see the difference between the colors green and orange. They cannot read small texts. They cannot hear the sounds in your site. Their computers still belong to the "Medieval Ages" of the nineteen nineties. Their Internet connection is still 56kbps. They might have difficulty in using the mouse or just plain keyboard lovers. They are in a hurry and want to go directly to the juicy stuff in your web site.
Whoever these persons are and whatever their needs are; we must satisfy them so that they can fully access information from our web sites. We must not put any barriers or restrictions on our web site in order for these persons to experience their viewing pleasure.
After accepting the mandate of establishing the web accessibility adhoc group from the government and fresh from the "Webmasters Interface Workshop" held at Cebu City in May of 2006, a team of web designers formed a group and held its first informal meeting at the conference hall of the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons in August 11, 2006. The group agreed to adopt the name Philippine Web Accessibility Group or PWAG.
As a government supervised group through the Department of Social Welfare and Development-National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons (DSWD-NCWDP) and the National Computer Center-Commission on Information and Communications Technology (NCC-CICT), PWAG is also tasked to oversee and implement relevant programs on accessible ICT in the Philippines.
During the meeting held in October 11, 2006, the PWAG core group agreed and finalized the main objectives in forming the organization. These are:
* - Revised April 2007
** - Latest addition based on the recommendations of the Securities and Exchange Commission
The core members and administrators of the group were selected by NCWDP from among those web designers who participated in the first ICT workshop in 2004 and the web sites they designed passed the Manila ICT Design Recommended accessibility compliance. They are the following:
The members were a mix of people working from the government, academe and the disability sectors.
PWAG is also supported by the following partners from both here and abroad:
PWAG is slowly but surely putting its weight in shaping the information and communications technology climate in the Philippines by promoting web accessibility and helping in the designing of web standards.
To view the comprehensive history of Web Accessibility Initiatives in the Philippines, please visit the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Accessibility_Initiatives_in_the_Philippines.