Internet accessibility means Internet for everyone
In Fundación Comparlante, we consider as urgent to highlight the importance of Web accessibility to ensure the access to information to persons with disabilities and the community in general.
The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is celebrated on the third Thursday of May every year. This Thursday May 20, 2022, Fundación Comparlante joins the international Web developers who assume their shared responsibility to ensure persons with disabilities the enjoyment of their rights and fundamental liberties in the digital ecosystem.
In this sense, we would like to invite all the Web developers in the world and the society to reflect upon, work, discuss and generate knowledge on Web accessibility and digital equity for persons with disabilities.
Discussing with Miguel Barraza, a developer with visual disabilities in Argentina, he explains: “Web accessibility is a set of practices to develop a Website usable for all the persons”. He stated that the country is well positioned in this matter, and that there is Law 26.653 on Website Information Accessibility which was approved and was disseminated in 2010.
Meanwhile, Gonzalo Ithurbide, a person with hypoacusis, a student of the Digital Communication Career in the Faculty of Journalism and Social Communication at the UNLP and a worker at the Universidad Nacional de la Plata, points out that his main challenge lies in audios and videos which usually do not have alternative text and the corresponding subtitling. This situation does not let him access information in equal conditions.
In Argentina, the National Office of Information Technologies (ONTI, for its Spanish acronym) is the entity in charge of regulating and controlling the compliance of this regulation. Nevertheless, it is needed to continue raising awareness on its importance since this law is not currently being complied.
Allowing persons with disabilities to access information, communication and knowledge through an accessible and usable Website is to recognize their rights to education, work, and participation in political, social, economic, and cultural life.
Fundación Comparlante works in favor of Web accessibility and encourages you to have an accessible, browsable and intuitive Website. Know how our Web Developers Team can help you with this mission here