Some thoughts and Possible Action Steps for CD

Anne, Jonathan,

You must be pretty frustrated by now with this discussion on the GL list.
Similarly -others are also frustrated.   Yet everyone seems to be trying to
address the same problem.    I have been trying to figure out where the
mismatches are and I think I may have picked up some of the clues from the
last 20 messages or so.  Let me try a couple things.

Jonathan - you said “ This group do not need 'every' page to be accessible,
however it would be very helpful if every site had a part for them.  For
example these people need to know their legal, medical and educational
rights.  They need to be able to browse the web and find suitable pages....”

Anne, you said that text was often too complicated to understand even if
read.   Yet some ideas cannot be expressed except via language.

These lead me to the following thought train

a)  It sounds like perhaps you two  are not asking that all pages be made
accessible to people with CD but that more content be made available in this
form.

b) However, the web content guidelines are intended to be applied to all web
pages.  (at least that is how everyone has been treating them).

c) therefore - what you are asking for is not changes to the web content
guidelines but rather something else.   What - I am not quite sure.  Perhaps
a call for more content on the web to be made accessible to people with CD
or severe CD.  Perhaps a call for the development of guidelines for those
who are trying to create specific pages targeted toward people who have CD
or severe CD.

d) In the guidelines, we have tried to put as much as we can to make ALL
pages as accessible as possible to people with CD by requiring that they be
written in the simplest language possible for the pages content and by
encouraging the use of graphics to supplement the text.     This will help
for some and make more pages accessible to more people.  But as you pointed
out, some pages will have text that is too complex and adding graphics will
not solve the problem for many.  We need guidance on what to do for them.



So I think I might suggest the following ideas for discussion

1)   CONTINUE LOOKING AT OUR CD GUIDELINES ( in WCAG) THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED
OF ALL PAGES
”That we continue to try to see if there is any more that can be though of
that should be required or encouraged for ALL web pages (and to add those to
the guidelines if we find any)

2)  TARGETED CD PAGES TECHNIQUES DOCUMENT  (to be given a better name
though)
That a subgroup be formed to explore the development of a specific set of
techniques for people trying to create particular pages on their sites
accessible to people with CD or severe CD.

3)  CD PAGE EXEMPLARS
That the subgroup also take a look at a series of sites and actually create
sample pages that follow the guidelines to demonstrate these ideas and
provide examples for others who might not understand the techniques doc
without examples.   You might pick a variety of sites.    Maybe the Disney
site, the WAI site, and I would like to see the Trace site included in the
examples.  [Lets call this

4)  CD ACCESS TECHNIQUES RESEARCH AND TESTING
I think it would be a great idea to also have someone submit a proposal to
do comparative research to see if people who cannot understand spoken text
could understand information provided in pictures or graphics - and which
types of information could be presented that way - and which types of
pictures or graphics would be most effective.   This then could drive the CD
techniques doc.



Thoughts ?

Gregg

-- ------------------------------
Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
Professor - Human Factors
Dept of Ind. Engr. - U of Wis.
Director - Trace R & D Center
Gv@trace.wisc.edu, http://trace.wisc.edu/
FAX 608/262-8848
For a list of our listserves send “lists” to listproc@trace.wisc.edu

Received on Sunday, 19 March 2000 00:59:53 UTC