Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

 Jamie Hurewitz is a longtime corporate attorney who worked at Level Access (formerly eSSENTIAL Accessibility), guiding aspects of operations such as legal, compliance, and business strategy. A core focus of Jamie Hurewitz’s role was on ensuring that mandates such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are met.

Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, WCAG rules help ensure maximum inclusivity across the Internet, and also assist in meeting legal mandates set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Among the core elements of Section 508 are Accessible Design elements, which include talking books for those who are blind and closed captions for those who are deaf. Electronic content is included within this matrix. For example, web pages should be designed such that information conveyed through color is also accessible without color, whether by markup or context. One key insight is that it is far easier to bake accessible content into websites as they are created than to remediate content afterword, and it is coordinating this across varied materials and mediums that makes dedicated management services essential.