Re: Flickr and alt

On Aug 18, 2008, at 6:37 AM, David Poehlman wrote:

>
> adding provisions for access to many many public facilities was not  
> easy to
> meet either, but it became law and everyone benefits except those  
> who didn't
> want the disabled in.

That's right, *public* facilities. Note that it is not legally  
mandated that every private dwelling must be made accessible, or that  
every handmade poster placed on a public bulletin board must have  
braille or audio equivalents. That is because the focus of  
accessibility law, and of our moral intuitions about the topic, is on  
public accommodations provided by institutions, not private actions of  
individuals.

Flickr is one of many public sites featuring user-generated content  
that is mostly shared with friends and family, but which is mostly  
visible to the general public. In terms of our moral sensibilities  
about accessibility, it is more like a public bulletin board where  
anyone can put up a poster, than like the professional signage in a  
store or school.

Regards,
Maciej


>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anne van Kesteren" <annevk@opera.com>
> To: "Philip TAYLOR (Ret'd)" <P.Taylor@rhul.ac.uk>
> Cc: "David Poehlman" <david.poehlman@handsontechnologeyes.com>; "James
> Graham" <jg307@cam.ac.uk>; "Steven Faulkner"  
> <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>;
> "Ian Hickson" <ian@hixie.ch>; "W3C WAI-XTECH" <wai-xtech@w3.org>;
> <public-html@w3.org>
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 9:30 AM
> Subject: Re: Flickr and alt
>
>
>
> On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:25:11 +0200, Philip TAYLOR (Ret'd)
> <P.Taylor@rhul.ac.uk> wrote:
>> Anne van Kesteren wrote:
>>> [...]I was trying to point out that Flickr cannot start requiring
>>> users to <perform some task> as that will simply kill their  
>>> business.
>>
>> Exactly the same argument was adduced about requiring
>> public houses to require their customers to either
>> refrain from smoking completely, or to smoke outside.
>>
>> The pubs /didn't/ go out of business, and most of their
>> customers came to accept that -- by following the rules --
>> they were improving the environment for everybody.
>
> Not smoking or smoking outside is a requirement that is easily met.  
> Adding
> useful alternate text to the ~300 images you upload a couple of  
> times a
> year is not. (The requirement not being easily met was the core  
> point of
> my argument, but you forgot to quote it.)
>
>
> -- 
> Anne van Kesteren
> <http://annevankesteren.nl/>
> <http://www.opera.com/>
>
>
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 01:14:40 UTC