Re: Jakob Nielsen's PDF format report

Hi,

One of the problems that the disabled community has is that in many
ways it is isolated because of people's reactions and also some of the
community's behavior.  If there is any chance of getting through
to people and educate them, it is not clear how this type of
rhetoric helps in that direction.

It now has me wondering if there is now a need for damage control.

Scott

> >>seems to me that if he was writing about accesibility, he'd have 
> >>had a perfect opportunity to demonstrate it.
> 
> It would not have killed the mighty NNGroup to have published the 
> report in Acrobat 3 format (in keeping with his excellency's diktat 
> to use outdated Acrobat versions) *and* the accessible Acrobat 5. As 
> for accessibility in other forms-- it's essentially a printed report 
> in drag. The obvious course of action is to sell an audiotape and/or 
> a Braille version. Everybody's happy. (Impediment: The big fish in 
> that small pond, RFB&D, can take months to bother responding to 
> snatchmails and phone calls asking for a quote, and even then will 
> demonstrate breathtaking incompetence. That's one of many reasons why 
> my book ain't gonna be available in audiotape unless the Library of 
> Congress or similar entity does the job itself.)
> 
> >His primary audience for this was not people with disabilities.
> 
> That horse won't hunt. Discussions of accessibility must be accessible.
> 
> >PS:  Frankly, I find the price of Jakob's study much more 
> >objectionable than the delivery format.
> 
> As professional reports go, it ain't that bad. Even I sell my reports 
> for vastly more than that.
> 
> And for those of you trying to ply your "contacts" in the mighty 
> NNGroup for help: Keep in mind that his excellency can and will 
> forbid his employees to answer your mail if you displease him; 
> NNGroup distributes essentially no free copies of anything (not even 
> New Riders, his excellency's publisher and mine, gets comps of his 
> reports); and researchers refuse to answer even politely-posed 
> questions concerning small details of methodology (e.g., "How many 
> subjects did you survey?"). There are reasons why his excellency and 
> his royal consort are so very widely despised. The difference here, 
> as compared to people like me, is that his excellency and his consort 
> can get away with pretending the enemies do not exist.

Received on Thursday, 27 December 2001 12:36:41 UTC