Re: Accessible road maps

> give them old technology do you?  They don't want yesterdays DOS machines 
> any more than any one else.  I still see "technical accessibility" 

That's for two reasons:

- because information that only NEEDs DOS level technology is only available
  in packages that require the latest technology - HTML was designed to
  be at a level that matched the needs of the information, whereas, 
  increasingly, information is only available in a form that matches the
  capabilities of the viewers - you have to upgrade to stay still;

- because nearly everyone is materialistic and WANTs to have the latest
  technology for their own status (in my view, for the last 15 or so
  years, the software industry has been a fashion industry, not a 
  technology one).

Writing didn't make speech obsolete and most businesses will still accept
hand written orders and send documents printed on paper, not just insist
on the web (if they didn't they would exclude more than half of the UK
population, which may be OK for computer supplies companies, but not
for public utilities).  

> separate from "affordability".  And I recognize the various stake holder 
> responsibilities, including that of industry to lower costs and that of 
> government to provide funds to purchase technology to bridge the digital 
> divide.

And that of information providers to provide their information in a form
that needs the minimum technology consistent with the information content.
(Incidentally, in my experience, the real information on comercial web
sites is in PDF and using PDF features that haven't really changed since
the early 1990s.  You will either find it as white papers or as user
manuals in the support section of the site - I always find it amusing that
the place on a site where I look for information for buying decisions
is actually the part aimed at existing owners.  PDF is not plain text,
but it is still old technology.)

Received on Friday, 4 June 2004 15:50:18 UTC