As published in Sunday Times the other day, Maltese Government has allocated €69,000 this year to Foundation for IT Accessibility and the National Commission for Persons with Disability. This agreement is supposed to bind the Government to amend legal structures to guarantee access to technology.

However, this is just a start. It is not enough to give technology to disabled people. For example, if a visually impaired person is trying to access a web page using screen reader, the web page must be semantically correct. Otherwise, the screen reader will not be able to interpret it correctly. In this case, most of the web design companies should change their practice and follow web standards in their process. Otherwise, the disabled persons will have the tools which will be of no value for them. Eventually, if the legal background is really changed end enforced into practice, web design companies would become accountable for these issues and things might change for better.

Filed under: accessibility.