Re: Kynn's Analysis of CD Web Accessibility

At 12:43 PM 4/2/00 +0100, Jonathan Chetwynd wrote:
>I like your approach.
>It seems clear that the idea of separating individual needs from assistive
>technology will be central to our development and understanding.
>
>Unfortunately the conclusions are not quite so palatable to me.
>
>CD is not well understood, either by experts in the field or the polulation
>at large.
>
>However we can say with some certainty that whilst human designed pages are
>a wonderful resource for CD clients,

Do you mean when someone is really good in illustrating topics with
pictures it is also good for CD or are there some specific demands of how
it must be done?

>current web based assistive technology is not of significant benefit in
>browsing the average web page.
>In particular screen readers are of very little use.
>
>Your definition of a suitable browser is helpful and worth while.
>Until it is implemented it is the responsibility of web authors to consider
>whether they are excluding people with CD

I still don't exactly understand when that happens. Is it possible to
define it in more exact way?
>
>I should add that I have built other browsers using VB to investigate their
>potential.
>I am currently in the process of transferring some of this knowledge into
>javascript/css in order to try and reach a wider audience.
>
>It mainly centers around offering clients options such as text/no text in
>their face, rather than hidden.

A visual language needs to be learned also. Any user has problems with
icons that he hasn't learned, that's why it is usually a good idea to add
also text to the icon to give more hints. And still you need to guess or
learn it. I would think that people with CD have similar problems in
learning the icons or am I wrong? Would it make better sense to convert the
text to visual language such as Bliss etc. than to some set of images that
are selected randomly by each designer? The language users could learn
little by little and become more advanced. In addition, they could benefit
from the illustrative images created by visually more or less talented
designers. If every designer starts to create their own iconic languages I
would think that it would be confusing. But correct me if I'm wrong.

Marja

>Mild aphasia which is rather common even in the general population means
>that other routes than mouse control will be central to this development.
>Has anyone got a feely one working yet?
>My two are still sitting in the wings.
>
>Best wishes and thanks
>
>
>
>jay@peepo.com
>
>special needs teacher
>web accessibility consultant
>

Received on Sunday, 2 April 2000 18:43:39 UTC