A holistic approach to accessibility

In light of the Digital Divide, what can the “web standards” community be doing to ensure most accessible practices are employed?

• Understanding that the Digital Divide is as much about training and usability as it is about physical access and type of resources
• Designing websites with this in mind, in terms of physical layout and usability for first-time users or users unfamiliar with technology:
  • layout of websites
  • prominence of navigation/logical structure
  • effective use of iconography/pictures/glyphs to communicate
  • content avoids use of technical jargon, or adequately explains it (i.e. IT related, not other industry specific)

Lots more could be written about this, but I thought it best to simply put the idea out there, rather than write a lengthy post on it. I may explain this at greater length at some point, but the thought just hit me as I was writing a related but not web usability oriented essay, and the distraction was too great!