Re: College Policies on Accessible Web Page Design

Re the policy on applets on scripts,
quote
>2. Applets and scripts (Priority 2, 6.4, 7.3, 8.1, 9.2, 9.3). Although we
>realize that inaccessible applets are a real issue, the scarcity of
>accessible java programs, perl scripts, etc. led us to be leniant in this
>area as well. Retrofitting existing scripts and applets to accessibility
>requirements is a large burden. Perhaps we could require that all _new_
>scripts be accessible?
unquote

It can be hard if the applet is actually interactively doing something,
e.g. it's a little physics simulation.  But when applets are used
decoratively, e.g. to scroll text, it's pretty simple to have alterative
equivalent content that appears when applets are turned off (just put
alternative content between the last PARAM and the closing </applet>.   In
this case the alternative is merely the text that's scrolled, possibly
including links. 

Similarly with some SCRIPTS where it's simple to have a NOSCRIPT.

Perhaps your guidelines could make this distinction and be tougher on the
simpler cases.

Thank you very much for bringing up this thread by the way (I'm also at a
University).

Len
-------
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and
Department of Electrical Engineering

Temple University
423 Ritter Annex, Philadelphia, PA 19122
kasday@acm.org   
     
(215) 204-2247 (voice)
(800) 750-7428 (TTY)

Received on Tuesday, 23 November 1999 10:01:44 UTC