- From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:55:25 +0000 (UTC)
- To: Steve Faulkner <sfaulkner@paciellogroup.com>
- Cc: HTMLWG <public-html@w3.org>
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, Steve Faulkner wrote: > > In your off (HTML WG) list response > [http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-archive/2007Aug/0024.html > ] > you have offered to help make a second "accessible" version of > http://www.whatwg.org/issues/ > > This is I believe is misguided and somewhat disingenuous: > > "[09:51] <Hixie> and frankly, i don't care if it doesn't work in IE7 > [09:51] <Hixie> that's IE7's prblem > ... > [09:53] <Lachy> just that IE users are complaining > [09:53] <Hixie> that's their problem > [09:53] <Hixie> they need a better browser" > > cite: http://krijnhoetmer.nl/irc-logs/whatwg/20070821 Note that I wrote the above comments regarding IE7 before realising that your needs were based on limitations of your accessibility tool rather than on limitations of IE. > If it is technically feasible as you infer (in your email) to provide a > version of the page that can be displayed in IE why not provide it in > the first place rather than having to duplicate the effort in developing > a second version? Providing an "accessible" alternative is always a last > resort. I have limited resources, I'd like to concentrate on working on the spec rather than working on tools to help people see how I'm working on the spec. I wrote this tool over a weekend, mostly for fun, to help people see what the issues are. It doesn't work in IE because it uses standards-based features that IE doesn't support. However, I have provided full documentation of the API used to allow it to be implemented in other browsers by anyone who wants to do so. I encourage you to implement an IE version, or find someone to volunteer to implement one for you. > Often times arguments on the HTML WG mailing list are based on concepts > such as "real world" use cases. IE is a mainstream browser used by many > people. > > Another concept is that "accessibility should be built in". Reasonable > efforts should be made to ensure that content for the consumption of the > working group members is designed to be displayed without users having > to jump through hoops in order to be able to access it. I went out of my way to make sure that the tool was written with accessibility in mind, such that any compliant aural browser or any screen reader with a compliant browser would be more than able to work well with this tool; and I provided detailed documentation to help someone with a non-compliant tool to write their own version. I'm sorry that your browsers are so expensive yet so limited, really I am. -- Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,. Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
Received on Tuesday, 21 August 2007 16:57:01 UTC