7. Developing Accessible Applications

It is important to consider accessibility when developing new applications for the Linux operating system. The American Foundation for the Blind, the GNOME Accessibility Project, IBM, Sun, and W3C have written guidelines that are excellent road maps for developing and testing new Linux software. The following Web sites provide the tools, checklists and testing information to help developers write accessible programs for impaired users.

• American Foundation for the Blind provides information on creating accessible computer applications at: http://www.afb.org/info_document_view.asp?documentid=198.

• GNOME Accessibility Project has written a guide specifically for application development for the GNOME 2.0 desktop. More information is available at: http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/guide/gad/index.html.

• IBM Accessibility Center provides links to a software accessibility checklist, testing information, and the Section 508 Rehabilitation Act. This site is located at: http://www-3.ibm.com/able/guidelines.html.

• Sun Accessibility provides information on designing applications for accessibility at: http://www.sun.com/access/developers/software.guides.html and an Accessibility Quick Reference Guide is available at: http://www.sun.com/access/developers/access.quick.ref.html.

• W3C User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 provides guidelines on accessible Web browser development including multimedia players and Web related software. http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAGIO/.