Re: New York Times web site

An alternative interpretation:

New York Times is better than a bunch of other websites that are appalling,
becuase although none of them manage to produce a decent accessible website
first out, at least the Times manages to provide a fallback of some kind that
is reasonably good in most cases.

Scott, there is no essential difference to the user between a dynamically
generated site and one that is statically generated. It is an implementation
difference dealt with and effective at the server side. AS Dick rown pointed
out, the guidelines do not prohibit a text-only version (well, they ask for
an accessible version, which is not really the same thing except to people
who are completely blind, but that's a different argument), they merely
suggest that this is not the ideal approach, but instead a last resort that
can be used to make access available.

As an alternative site, I read The Age http://www.theage.com.au fairly
regularly. It is not ideal either, but it more or less works, and is a good
quality Newspaper (Melbourne based).

Charles McCN

On Thu, 10 Feb 2000, Scott Luebking wrote:

  Hi, Gregory
  
  Your response is kind of unexpected.  First, the use of text-only versions
  means that the NY Times is out of compliance with the guidelines.
  
  Another interesting aspect is that your comment supports what I've been
  saying about the usefulness of multiple versions of dynamically
  generated web pages.  It also points out that the guidelines may need
  to have different requirements depending on whether the web pages are
  created dynamically or not.
  
  Scott
  
  
  > aloha, scott!
  > 
  > please let them know that the text-only slash low bandwidth version of 
  > their site makes them the most accessible online newspaper that i've yet to 
  > encounter....
  > 
  > overall, their web site (with a few significant holes, such as the magazine 
  > section) is easy to use, and is quite a popular source of news for blind 
  > users, especially those who use lynx...
  > 
  > gregory.
  

--
Charles McCathieNevile    mailto:charles@w3.org    phone: +61 (0) 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative                      http://www.w3.org/WAI
21 Mitchell Street, Footscray, VIC 3011,  Australia

Received on Thursday, 10 February 2000 22:48:36 UTC