W3C web accessibility work boosted by Ford Foundation core funding

https://www.w3.org/ - 26 November 2024 - The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is pleased to share with our Members and community at large that we have received US$ 660,037 in core funding from the Ford Foundation via their Technology and Society program. This grant provides core support through July 2026 to W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) work developing web accessibility standards, guidelines, and implementation resources to support access for people with disabilities.

This funding represents a great boost to our development efforts, as it will not only enable day-to-day operations of WAI, but will help us strengthen the foundations for our work in accessibility to continue and thrive in the long term.

It is also very significant, as it is the first grant that we receive under the legal entity W3C, Inc. established in January 2023, becoming a US public-interest non-profit organization.

W3C has brought together stakeholders to collaboratively develop international accessibility standards and resources since 1997. Today, W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is an international standard adopted around the world.

This grant will further the W3C mission to connect and empower humanity, including people with a diverse range of cognitive, hearing, movement, sight, and speech ability.

When designed well, the Web can remove barriers to communication and interaction that many people face in the physical world. However, when websites, apps, and tools are poorly designed, they create barriers that exclude disabled people from using the Web. Accessibility is essential to create a high-quality online experience.

The educational materials produced by WAI provide developers, designers, content authors, project managers, policy makers, trainers, and others with the knowledge needed to make digital technology accessible for people with disabilities and enhance the user experience for everyone, while meeting international standards. The WAI resources include tutorials, tools, tips, and training - all free online, in many languages.

An estimated 1.3 billion people experience significant disability. This represents 16% of the world's population, or 1 in 6 of us. [WHO] And many more people have disabilities or temporary impairments that impact their lives and their use of technology.

"It is critical that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with diverse abilities," said Shawn Lawton Henry, W3C WAI Program Lead. "Accessibility is essential for people with disabilities and useful for all."

The things we do for accessibility also benefit others who are often impacted by the digital divide: people with low bandwidth or expensive bandwidth, people with older equipment, people with low literacy in general or in certain languages; and also elderly users and mobile phone users. Accessibility's benefits for individuals leads to broad benefits throughout societies, including governments and businesses.

The Ford Foundation approaches their work with the goal to challenge inequality.

"W3C's work to create educational materials for anyone, from developers to policy makers, on how to make digital technology accessible and effective for people with disabilities is essential to create a society where everyone can participate and thrive," said Michael Brennan, senior program officer, Ford Foundation. "Our support for W3C is an investment in a more inclusive future."

W3C continues to lead the development of updated accessibility standards and resources to address evolving technology and society impacts around the world.

"I'm delighted to receive this generous funding from Ford Foundation," said Seth Dobbs, W3C CEO. "Aligning our mission to create a Web that works for everyone with their goal to challenge inequality will produce a greater ability to advance the cause of web accessibility and to further empower an equitable, informed, and interconnected society. This is W3C's first major funding as a 501(c)(3) organization and I look forward to the impact we'll create with this. We welcome other like-minded donors to support our work on accessibility, and also our work on internationalization, privacy and security, so that we can make the web work, for everyone."