In attempting to make FirstSearch more accessible to people with disabilities, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines have been used extensively Also, the CAST Bobby validation tool has proven useful. The efforts have been discussed in detail in a paper on the FirstSearch User Interface Architecture presented at the First ACM Conference on Universal Usability, and was discussed in an OCLC HCI Question).

There is some confusion about terminology for making software accessible in the U.S. There are receurring references to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and making software ADA-compliant. As best I can tell, "ADA-compliance" has no meaning because the relevant law is not from the ADA but from Section 508 of the Rehabillitation Act. Regardless, people ask questions about the "level" of compliance to the ADA, which as best I can tell, also has no meaning. The ADA law is divided into "Titles":

  1. Employment
  2. Public Services
  3. Public Accommodations and Services Operated by Private Entities
  4. Telecommunications
  5. Miscellaneous
and publicly-funded agencies such as libraries have been particularly concerned with Title II although many public services would be concerned with Title III. Federal IT Accessibility Initiative - Web So, any "level" of compliance is with respect to the WAI guidelines. The WAI guidelines are divided into three levels of priorities:
  1. must be satisfied
  2. should be satisfied
  3. may be satisfied
The WAI defined three levels of conformance to the guidelines:
  1. Level "A": All Priority 1 checkpoints are satisfied
  2. Level "Double-A": All Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints are satisfied
  3. Level "Triple-A": All Priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints are satisfied
Note that the levels themselves are designed to have names that are more accessible to users of screen readers.

To determine the conformance level of FirstSearch, http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/checkpoint-list.html (version 19990505), a checkpoint was considered passed if FirstSearch has been set up to pass it and that the checkpoint has been met; it is possible that some part of FirstSearch does not comply, but that would be classified as a bug that could easily be fixed. Based on the following checkpoints:

FirstSearch conforms to W3C's "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0", available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505, level A.
and we could put an icon on the FirstSearch pages. Priority 1 checkpoints

In General (Priority 1)

And if you use images and image maps (Priority 1) And if you use tables (Priority 1) And if you use frames (Priority 1) And if you use applets and scripts (Priority 1) And if you use multimedia (Priority 1) And if all else fails (Priority 1) Priority 2 checkpoints

In General (Priority 2)

And if you use tables (Priority 2) And if you use frames (Priority 2) And if you use forms (Priority 2) And if you use applets and scripts (Priority 2) Priority 3 checkpoints

In General (Priority 3)

And if you use images and image maps (Priority 3) And if you use tables (Priority 3) And if you use forms (Priority 3)