Accessibility Interoperability Alliance
by Rob Mason ~ December 20th, 2007 Filed under: Accessibility, Random.
Quite a mouthful, but the new Accessibility Interoperability Alliance promise great things: “dedicated to enabling developers to more easily create accessible software, hardware and Web products” and “Improving Accessibility Through Industry Collaboration“…which can only be a good thing.
In simple terms the alliance aims to bring together industry big hitters, such as Adobe and Microsoft, to ensure that technology they develop is as accessible as possible. Where possible they will derive industry standards, via organisation like ANSI and ISO, to ensure everyone follows the rules. This can only be a good thing. The website itself is fairly bland, however they do have a good resources section which is well worth a look.
Microsoft has started making better noises with regards to accessibility and web standards in general, so this working group isn’t a shock. Is it just defence against the impending legal action from Opera? Or do they genuinely want to change their ways? Either way, let’s hope that good things come of this and that IE8 actually delivers.