Re: "computing and multiple impairments" a talk on special needs, the web and accessibility

aloha, jonathan!

sorry for not getting these out to you last week, when you posted the URI 
of your slideset to the EO list, but i've been having serious computer 
problems that have left me with only the spottiest of connections, and only 
the most tenuous hold on my digital data...

in any event, for what they're worth, here are my comments:

aloha, jonathan!

good job, but i do have a few suggestions

1. technical suggestions

1A. it is not clear from the ALT text that the links which are defined as 
back and forward arrows actually move one backwards and forwards through 
the slide set...

perhaps you could reinforce this point by adding simple prefixes to the ALT 
text for each button, so that anyone who isn't capable of perceiving the 
back and forward buttons as iconic representations of backwards and 
forwards movement, instead of seeing/hearing the ambiguous:

Mission
Some Questions for You

which sound as if they are simply hyperlinks on the page that lead 
elsewhere on your site, the textual alternative would clarify that the 
resources to which they point are part of the presentation...

Previous: Mission
Next: Some Questions for You

1B. use stylesheets, rather than a universal H1 to control the font size 
for the slide as a whole...  currently, each slide contains two level one 
header declarations -- one which forces the entire content of the page to 
be rendered using the browser's default style setting for level one 
headers, and one (unclosed) level one header to indicate the topic of the 
individual slide...  misuse of structural markup is a very bad idea for 3 
reasons: (1) it violates WCAG; (2) it decreases user control over the 
presentation of content; (3) it may interfere with the proper rendering of 
the page (both from a visual and non-visual viewpoint)  -- if you'd like, i 
can work with you on this (i've already started to play around with one or 
2 of the slides)

2. content questions

2A. on page4.html (the fourth slide in your presentation, entitled "Why 
Bother With The Web"), you state:

quote
The web is icon and image based.
unquote

the web is neither icon nor image based, and i'm not sure that that is 
exactly what you meant -- could you not, instead, stress that the web 
provides individuals with the capacity slash option to operate in an iconic 
and image-based modality?

gregory.

At 04:59 PM 6/8/00 +0100, you wrote:
>I gave my first invited talk on special needs, the web and accessibility.
>The group was varied, mostly academics working in the area of computing and
>multiple impairments.
>The notes are here: http://www.signbrowser.org.uk/camitalk
>
>I'd appreciate your comments offline or on.
>
>jc@signbrowser.org.uk
>jonathan chetwynd
>special needs teacher
>web accessibility consultant

--------------------------------------------------------
He that lives on Hope, dies farting
      -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1763
--------------------------------------------------------
Gregory J. Rosmaita <unagi69@concentric.net>
    WebMaster and Minister of Propaganda, VICUG NYC
         <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/index.html>
--------------------------------------------------------

Received on Tuesday, 13 June 2000 13:54:09 UTC