Re Reference card: Binges amendments

Re: version 4 of Harvey Bingham's amendments to the text of the <200 word
version of the reference card

Some general points

I support the notion of a version of the reference card which fits onto a
business card. It is a slight cheat, but I have been speculating as to
whether the card could be
i) a triptych OR
ii) a foldover card (still business card sized)
Either of these options would allow the font to be a more readable size
although they do have cost implications.

My following comments are only applicable to a version of the card which is
appropriate for reproduction in the business card format.

Harvey's preferred version accepts Daniel's
i) deletion of the section which explicitly refer to alternative access by
keyboard or voice (this is now collapsed into 'Provide easy navigation...')
ii) additions of html references.

Some of Harvey's amendments to the text would need to be shortened if we
were to include e.g., explicit references to accommodations for deaf users
etc. (the text about audiovisual material that disappeared between the
transition from the longer versions of the reference card to the less than
200 word version (3.2)).

Harvey's amendments to the original text of my <200 word version are clear
to the members of the group. However, the rewrite of some of the sentences,
and the inclusion of more sophisticated lexical items, increases the
notional level of functional literacy that is needed to read the document.
This is not necessarily a problem if the business card version is targeted
at an audience which is relatively narrow, and very well understood.

Some specific comments.

INTRODUCTION

I prefer the introduction as follows:

Maximise your audience. Make your site faster and easier to use for people
with portable web devices, anyone with low bandwidth connections, or
disabled users.
Make sure your web site communicates effectively even with the graphics,
sounds, and moving images, turned off.

1) I am apprehensive that Harvey's rewrite of my introduction could be
interpreted as support for an alternative text-only version of a site.

2) I do not think that a document of *this length* is the place to
introduce the range of options such as "(small window, text-only or
monochrome screen, Braille, text-to-speech, webphone, noisy environment,
preference for large font, color shift, etc.)"

3) I deliberately omitted specifying the output options because I did not
want to have to list them, and then provide the assurance that "You do not
need to know anything about telecoms or the extra hardware and software
that some disabled people use to access the web" (quoted from version of
reference card I posted to the list on 30 July).

I will not give a full commentary on the card until the group has expressed
a preference for having a reference card in the format of a business card.


Stella O'Brien, KO2
email: smo-brien@lioness.demon.co.uk

Received on Wednesday, 2 September 1998 04:57:50 UTC