Alan J. Flavell wrote:
[snip]
There are some remarkably clue-resistant folks around. If I didn't
think they were dumb, then I'd have to believe they were deliberately
discriminatory. Sigh.
Hm! I also think that much of the material around on how to go about it leaves
a lot to be desired.
You surely recognise that I am not deliberately discriminatory. But, while
trying to improve the accessibility of my web sites, at times I've been
presented with challenges that have made me wonder not so much whether it is
worth it, but whether it is even possible!
One of my early challenges was "Bobby". It presented me with such a list of
issues for any page I showed it that I couldn't see any path towards enabling
a disabled person ever to access those pages. But, frankly, Bobby was lying to
me. It was actually telling me of a set of incremental problems, not of a
fundamental barrier. (Does the fact that certain web pages specify in the HTML
that buttons are 175 pixels wide prevent disabled people accessing those
pages? Does the fact that there is only white space between some links stop
readers making sense of those links - when I know that the IBM Home Page
Reader can speak those links OK? Let's have a sense of reality!)
I now see accessibility as a "programme", not simply as a "standard".
Achieving accessibility is a "process", not "leaping over a hurdle". However
bad your pages are, some disabled people may be able to access them. However
good your pages are, some fully-able people will have trouble. Make a priority
list, then tackle the problems one by one. It may take a year to get 80% of
the way towards "Bobby", but don't assume that every disabled person "sees"
things the same way.
All my web sites now have an "accessibility" page that discusses what I have
done and what I am doing. They also provide an email address for suggestions.
I'll add problems as I find them, and tick them off as I solve them. Being
able to record progress avoids the impotence of not actually achieving any
particular standard. (My web pages will never be accessible to all disabled
people. Nor to all abled people!)
Examples:
http://www.childsupportanalysis.co.u...essibility.htm http://www.barry.pearson.name/web_si...essibility.htm http://www.birdsandanimals.info/web_...essibility.htm
--
Barry Pearson
http://www.Barry.Pearson.name/photography/ http://www.BirdsAndAnimals.info/ http://www.ChildSupportAnalysis.co.uk/