The W3C/WAI guidelines provide a means for public information providers and web site builders to conform to a set of informal rules on designing and structuring web sites.
Few sites presently comply with the guidelines, which makes internet use difficult for the visually impaired who rely on browsers which speak the content of web pages or produce them in Braille. Images and tables are among the elements which can present problems for these browsers if the code of the web pages does not follow the steps for site content, structure and coding which are recommended by the guidelines.
According to the Commission, there are 37 million people with disabilities in the EU, while the number of older Europeans is steadily increasing.
In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act contains rules on making sites reasonably accessible by the disabled and all UK sites should comply, though few actually meet the recommended levels. To date, the provisions, which came into force in 1999, have not been enforced.
The Commission observed that the W3C/WAI guidelines represent best practice in design-for-all (universal design) for the internet, and aim to be compatible with both earlier and new technologies. Recognised as, in effect, a global standard for the design of accessible web sites, the Commission said they are likely to have an impact on improved web access throughout the public sector, particularly in health, government, and learning.
The Member States and the European institutions are taking on board the guidelines for all public web sites by the end of 2001.