RE: What instead of click here?

Dear All,
Thank you for your input. I'm sorry if I have opened a can of worms, I
was only going on advice that I have read on Accessibility. I admit now
that it seemed a stupid question, but at the time I was trying to
consider users who might have visual or motor difficulties. I think that
the question has now been answered and I would hate for anyone to go
'over the top' about this.

I completely agree that this is now a non-issue, but it has taken this
discussion to come to that conclusion. I also think that if used
correctly, click here is not a bad thing, but I can also see the other
side that says that click here offers no idea for a non-visual user if
applied to, say, an advertisement.

I guess, in short, I am asking for the battle to end!

Kind regards to all and thanks to those who answered my question.
Simon White

-----Original Message-----
From: Kynn Bartlett [mailto:kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 17:52
To: David Poehlman
Cc: Simon White; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: What instead of click here?


At 09:44 AM 10/9/2001 , David Poehlman wrote:
>you hit it on the head. <slang>  Let's approach it from the beginning
>non mouse user's point of view or from the point of view of cognition.
>Click here does not tell me what to do.

Sure it does.  Why are you assuming only mice can click?  And
are there any users out there who honestly are confused and
come to a halt when they encounter "click here" and who would
be easier able to "follow this link"?  I think not.  This is
a non-issue.  It's like saying "see you later" to a group of
friends that includes a blind person.  Sure, if you want to be
willfully ignorant you could take it literally and object "NO
I WON'T SEE YOU LATER", or you could just understand that it's
meant to mean something non-literal.

If I'm on a chat room I will often say "See you later" if someone
logs off.  But OH NO, I HAVEN'T ACTUALLY SEEN THEM AT ALL,
since they're across the country or world!  Big deal -- this
is just terminology, and at BEST someone who chooses to be
oversensitive will get their feelings hurt.  Irrationally hurt
feelings are not accessibility, though, nor are they usability.

You can click with a keyboard.  You can click with nearly any
access device, and those devices specifically produce the effect
of a "click".

"Click" doesn't mean "use a mouse", and if you think it does,
then you're being overly literal, and if you think it introduces
accessibility barriers because "not everyone clicks" then I think
you are in some sort of fantasy land.  I prefer to live in the
land of REAL accessibility problems and REAL usability problems
and not dwell on hypothetical situations.

Okay, so who here has seen the words "click here" and just sat
there staring at the screen (or listening to the output), helpless,
unable to figure out what to do?  How long did you sit there
before leaving the web site or giving up entirely, because you
said "I HAVE NO MOUSE AND I MUST CLICK?"

No, the answer is, even if you felt sad because you had no mouse,
you understood -- or quickly learned -- what "click here" means.
It's not an accessibility problem, pure and simple, and it 
removes usability barriers in some cases.  So let's not fight
the "click here" term and spend our energy on real problems.

--Kynn

--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@reef.com>
Technical Developer Liaison
Reef North America
Accessibility - W3C - Integrator Network
________________________________________
BUSINESS IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL.
________________________________________
http://www.reef.com

Received on Tuesday, 9 October 2001 13:06:05 UTC