Re: And today's ironic bit of HTML is...

>Just last week I had the webmaster in charge of this site argue with me
>that including ALT tags on this page was "dated" thinking and not
>necessary:
>http://www.capta.org/
>And that was after I showed him what the page looked like in Lynx.
>Bill Mason

Because CAPTA is a non-profit organization purportedly dedicated to the 
education of all children, there are a couple things you can do, primarily 
relating to law and policy.

1.  Does the California PTA receive any federal funds, especially from the 
US Department of Education?  If so, they are bound by Section 504 of the 
Rehabilitation Act to follow Section 508 Accessibility standards.  Have the 
webmaster consult the organization's legal counsel on the issue ( or 
threaten to do it for him).

2.  The California PTA in several of its documents--some of which aren't 
"accessible" in a number of browsers or because they are in PDF--purports 
to support the Americans with Disabilities Act and its related 
regulations.  Thus, having an inaccessible site violates it's own 
policies.  Bring the issue up to CAPTA's board of directors.

Sometimes the threat of legal action is the only way to get people to respond.

(By the way, I'm beginning to understand perspective's like the 
webmaster's.  They're not being taught to use basic HTML standards in 
school. I began developing websites in 1994 and am self-taught, but most of 
today's webmasters have some sort of academic training.  I have been 
negotiating to teach accessibility to web design and development 
instructors at a local community college.  They admit that they don't teach 
how to do W3C standard HTML.  It's all Frontpage and Dreamweaver and to 
hell with HTML, accessibility and other standards.  AAARRRGH!!!)

Terry

Terry Brainerd Chadwick, InfoQuest! Information Services
mailto:tbchad@tbchad.com  1-503-228-4023  http://www.tbchad.com
Providing Internet Audits and Optimization to Improve Performance
Accessibility, Analytics, Content, Promotion, Search, Usability

Received on Thursday, 4 July 2002 20:44:26 UTC