Re: training doc

JB:: "good, bad, improvements?"

WL: By a "boggled mind" I mean that you have gone from some beginning
notes to a full-fleshed, incredibly already usable, impressive entity in
what seems like a short time while still appearing before a
sub-committee, attending more teleconferences, and replying to more
email and interview requests than I could have even when in full
possession of my faculties. Midn-boggling was in this case
congratulatory.

JB:: "Do you have the link for this?[retrofitting paper]

WL: I think I was trying to suggest creation of a "retrofit how-to" by
those who've done a LOT of retrofitting. We often comment on how
difficult this is and such a resource would argue on both sides of that
question. Retrofitting a site with a million PDF files will be lots
harder than adding a few dozen ALTs, etc. But a recount of the details
involved in a typical effort might be inspirational for some Webmasters
who would be daunted by the entire "How to Make an Accessible Site"
training course.

JB:: "Not sure what you mean here [back button wear].

WL: I go down four levels from the document I'm reading and want to go
back to what started this off - I must hit back and (in my case of slow
uploads) wait a long time for each preceding link to reload, hit back
again, etc. Sometimes the back button shows a pull-down from which I can
skip some steps and I don't know if that's a universal feature of all
browsers and if it always works - it's slow and erratic like tooltips.

JB:: "are you saying that the document set is indeed too layered now"

WL: Exactly the opposite. I think the power of the Web and an important
aspect that this document can illustrate is in the proliferation of
easily used inline hyperlinks. I suggest that making hyperlinking
addictive we will hasten the "everything" part of "everyone, everything
connected". Skipping footnotes, etc. will speed reading and in the
process make, e.g. everything pertaining to everything available from
everything, if you take my meaning. I can start off reading about making
my site accessible and wind up learning about Wittgenstein and Punk Rock
and somebody else winds up discovering that there's water under the
surface of Mars. To be more specific about the instant issue: more links
from the central document and lots of "central documents". The current
one is starting well and as I go through it I will make more specific
suggestions - it would just be nice to be able to actually test them in
a "scratchpad space" of my own rather than just talking about them. This
would allow me to be more specific and avoid Charles' chastisement about
how easy it is to "talk the talk" but let's have some specific language,
etc. - with which I fully agree. QuickTips didn't have this problem
because a suggestion was specific language: you couldn't get away with
"let's just terserize the guidelines". Generalities become specifics
when one must test on one's own version of a document what one proposes.
Len has suggestions for a tool - he writes one. I think a path should be
explored - put my keyboard where my mouth is. Group authoring can't be
done on a single master copy and without the experience of testing ideas
on one's own the input will be as vague as that about which you query me
when (if) I suggest "improvements". Instead of "try this" (to some
editor) - "I tried this and you can see it at..." Chuck had slides to
work with and it's clear that access to them couldn't be manifold but
the feedback/modification process might be improved if those making
suggestions were enabled/forced to test them - hence the idea of having
my own copy of the entire thing to jack with.

-- 
Love.
            ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE
http://dicomp.pair.com

Received on Thursday, 8 June 2000 10:58:27 UTC