Integration of Web Accessibility into Agile Methods

In a short period of time, the World Wide Web has had a huge impact on our society and lives. In web sites and web applications, accessibility and usability are essential key requirements. Unfortunately, most web sites are inaccessible to many disabled people and fail to satisfy the most basic standards for accessibility. Many of the barriers people with disabilities face on the Web are completely avoidable and the disadvantage associated with disability can be entirely overcome. To support the accessibility of web sites, different accessibility guidelines and standards have been introduced for the last ten years. Nevertheless, a web site can meet accessibility standards, but it can still difficult for people with disabilities to use it. Moreover, web accessibility has been often an afterthought in the development process of web sites. In many cases, web developers provide an adaptation or a fix to the interface of a web site after it has been released to the public. In this paper, we argue that the adoption of agile software development methods can help to improve the accessibility of web projects. Besides, the integration of accessibility into agile methods is proposed.