intro web

INTRODUCTION
The term “Web 2.0” describes new characteristics of the Web. New types of services are made possible by the ability of sites to share or aggregate data, and for users to be part of the authoring
process. For users, it is often characterized by much greater interactivity, with users able to influence what is presented to them. Often the content changes or updates frequently, such as in
games, flight trackers, stock tickers, etc. In many ways there is a more desktop-like experience, in which Web applications converge with the features of ordinary applications. This is an
emergent aspect of the combination of existing technologies supported by the open nature of the architecture of the Web. Although Web 2.0 applications behave increasingly like desktop
applications, they continue to use Web technologies for content transmission, encoding, and presentation. These technologies are used or combined in novel ways that lack the accessibility features that have been built over years into their platform-specific counterparts and are just becoming effectively mainstream in “Web 1.0” content. Web 2.0 thus presents significant risks to accessibility. Because Web 2.0 is an emergent phenomenon rather than a specific technology or set of technologies, there is no single designer or responsible authority that ensures that the technologies and practices support accessibility. Market forces must influence this. While the work done by accessibility advocates to date has greatly increased awareness of accessibility, the voice of the community is not loud enough. Because of the fast pace of technological innovation, and because the accessibility challenges of Web 2.0 can block the very people who need most to engage in dialog to influence its form. Therefore accessibility is an important challenge.

The Semantic Web was not created to solve accessibility problem, in spite of the overlap with the term “semantic” that’s an important part of accessibility techniques. But it brings great accessibility promise. The creators of Semantic Web understand accessibility and are supportive of it, seeing it as one of the dimensions of universal access that all W3C technologies are
designed to support. However, we recognize that standards are slow, and technology
evolves quickly in the commercial marketplace. Innovation brings new customers and solidifies relationships with existing customers; Web 2.0 innovations also bring new types of professionals to the field, ones who care about the new dynamic medium. As technologies prove themselves, standardizing brings in the universality of the benefit, but necessarily follows this innovation. Therefore, this paper acknowledges and respects Web 2.0, discussing the issues and real world solutions.