RE: The alt="" attribute

> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-html-request@w3.org [mailto:public-html-request@w3.org] On
> Behalf Of Karl Groves
> Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 11:22 AM
> To: Ian Hickson
> Cc: public-html@w3.org
> Subject: Re: The alt="" attribute
> 
> This leads me to address your mention last week of "appeals to
> authority". While I can agree with your argument that statements
> shouldn't be accepted outright based simply on the identity of the
> person making the statement, it is also worth mentioning that these
> statements are born from sometimes decades of professional experience
> in the field of accessibility. I can't speak for others, but I can tell
> you that my 8-10 hour a day, 5-day-a-week interaction with disabled
> people largely negates the need for "research" into most accessibility
> issues - i.e. "alt text".

While I agree with your overall point here, I just want to point out that this is just a form of a huge concentration of anecdotal evidence, not a true substitute for quantifiable evidence. While you may deal with disabled people 40 - 50 hours per week, that still does not mean that it is a representative sample. For example, if everyone you deal with are highly experienced computer users, and the overall population of disabled people are extremely inexperienced users, your personal experiences are not applicable to the population as a whole.

Again, I agree with the overall point that you made. :)

J.Ja

Received on Tuesday, 26 August 2008 16:54:29 UTC