Re: [WAI-IG] Serving my page in the right language

> 
> Again, there are unwarranted assumptions here. First, that they are 
> actually using a Windows version that allows easy switching between 
> different users

All versions likely to be used by a naive user do.

>                 (and especially that they are using XP); and secondly that 

I was only assuming XP in relation to a feature that I said was not in
the Home Edition, and to note that language selection was more in depth
than the level that you were discussing.  However, I would suggest that,
at the moment, the reasonable assumption when answering a question where
the user doesn't specify the operating system is to assume XP Home,
or in the UK at least, a turnkey system based on a pre-configured XP Home.

> they even know they _can_ set up different users, each with their own 
> configuration.

However, I do have real problems on this issue as I am a believer in
the broad definition of accessibility (some prominent posters on this
list insist that accessibility only applies to the legally disabled and
designers may take what liberties with people considered normal (even if
poor, etc.))   In this particular case, the best resolution would seem
to me to be for the browser not to send Accept Language if there is no
dominant language in a country and to send the dominant language of the
region in which it was sold, otherwise.  Multi-lingual pages should then
provide an override mechanism.

You are not going to produce a browser that makes it easy for every
user to find every option that might benefit them, without making a
effort to look for them.  And, unfortunately, most users want 
instant gratification, so don't even read the getting started 
documentation.

(The problem with broad definition accessibility is that it unattractive
to businesses as it results, in their perception, in expenditure on
segments of the market that will not produce additional sales to more
than compensate for the expenditure, or will be less profitable than 
creating a new product for the easy part of the market.)

Received on Thursday, 25 March 2004 16:32:24 UTC