- From: David Bobzien <davidb@unr.edu>
- Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 10:04:05 -0700
- To: <public-evangelist@w3.org>
>>From: Al Abut
>>Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 9:30 AM
>>I do feel sometimes like I'm co-opting the cause of designing with disabled
>>people in mind simply because pages that are accessible for them are
>>consequently easily digestible by other devices as well.
Ironic, I find myself doing the reverse: stumping for disabilities accessibility by talking about how great it will be when networked refrigerators can cruise the Web. Maybe I've got it all backwards!
Seriously, a major hurdle to standards evangelism is the unfortunate residual backlash against disabilities access. I've seen supposedly enlightened professors in a university setting decry the "extra work" necessary to provide accommodation to students with disabilities. The notion that accessible websites are "more work" is unfortunately all too pervasive.
A link to share on accessibility: WebAIM ("Web Accessibility in Mind", http://www.webaim.org/). Their screen reader simulation, http://www.webaim.org/simulations/screenreader/, is an eye-opening look at the (lack of) accessibility of a hypothetical university website. It's a Shockwave screen reader "emulator" that shows how awful an experience an inaccessible site can be. Easy to share with the people we preach to.
Cheers,
David Bobzien
Received on Thursday, 11 July 2002 13:04:07 UTC