Conclusions

Information gained from the NCDDR review of NIDRR grantees' Web sites suggests that considerable commonalities exist among grantee Web sites. Namely, a majority of grantees with Web sites: used update notices (51 percent); acknowledged NIDRR (57 percent); used text and graphics (70 percent); included navigational tools (78 percent); and included forms and/or electronic mail feedback options (86 percent). One can debate whether these overall frequencies are as high as may be desired at the current time. At any rate, it is clear that the characteristics of NIDRR grantees' Web sites are changing. The snapshot of today may not look remotely like the snapshot of tomorrow.

It is of concern that an objective measure of accessibility of Web sites would suggest that approximately 65 percent of all Web sites are not as accessible as they could be. Again, while this characteristic is also undoubtedly changing, this characteristic is created by each grantee that has chosen to develop and design their own Web site. Each grantee is encouraged to apply the graphical Web-based program of Bobby to their Web site in order to begin appraising this characteristic of your Web site. It does seem reasonable to expect that NIDRR grantees Web sites should be held to a higher standard reflecting what is desired in every WWW site -- the most accessible sites possible for users with disabilities

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