Propagating experience-based accessibility guidelines to user interface development

This paper presents a methodological approach towards the integration of ac cessibility guidelines into the user interface development life cycle. The term accessibility guidelines refers to the consolidated design wisdom, as documented in general recommendations, principles of good practice, experie nce-based heuristics or otherwise 'blessed' rules, regarding the constructi on of interactive computer-based software for people with disabilities. At the core of the proposed method is the use of a design repository and a sup porting tool environment capable of encapsulating, customizing and reusing experience-based accessibility wisdom, so as to facilitate the integration of:previously generated, tested and agreed, accessibility recommendations i nto new design cases and user interface implementations. It is argued that the proposed approach eliminates some of the limitations or shortcomings as sociated with more conventional methods, such as the use of paper-based gui delines, or reviews by experts, while it facilitates more effective communi cation amongst designers and developers of user interfaces.