Re: The Times survey on .com companies

Hi, Paul.

There is only one invariant rule that I would suggest you should definitely
follow: 

* When there are contested points which hang on the interpretation of the
WAI Guidelines, bring the question to the WAI.  You should follow whatever
procedures are established by the WAI for this, but for the time being
until officially directed otherwise, use the list at <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org> to
request interpretation or clarification of the published guidelines. 

The rest of these suggestions are more in the "a word to the wise" category
than anything that one would attach a 'must' to:

* Think about what it will take to sustain a designer-friendly admosphere,
an admosphere which will draw successful designers of accessible web
content into the process of spreading the word.

* Before you get too committed to an organization or a planned mode of
operation, talk to the RNIB.  They have engaged in campaigns of this sort
before and I would say they have done it well.

* Stay in touch with what is happening in the WAI-EO working group.  While
your individual group may move ahead faster, it is still smart to use this
forum to stay in touch with what your peers are doing in other languages
and countries.  At least one of your committed people should be a member of
this group and serve as liason or rapporteur.

* Likewise the activities within the U.S. Federal Government to implement
the pending regulations associated with Section 508 of the Rehabiliation
Act (as amended) are something you should be aware of.  Participating in
WAI-EO may be a good way to track what develops here.

* I recommend to anyone contemplating campaigns that they download the
archives of the WebWatch mailing list and do some reading there of success
stories.  There is a lot of wisdom buried in them thar logs.  Start at 
 
Webwatch

http://www.teleport.com/~kford/webwatch.htm
 
and navigate to

archived postings

http://www.teleport.com/~kford/digest.htm

Al

At 10:26 AM 2000-07-03 +0100, Paul Davis wrote:
>A survey on .com companies for the Times newspaper group (to be released 
>tomorrow, I believe) has found that 67% of the world's top 100 .com 
>companies are based here in the UK.
>
>To me this means that more effort should be made on accessibility issues
here.
>
>Flushed with success at the response in my inbox from my last posting on 
>this matter, I would like to re emphasize the need for a pressure group to 
>"educate and assist" the Brit web designers.
>

>With regard to Leah Fretwell's call for another group to be formed with a 
>slightly different angle on accessibility issues, and the question of if 
>this is needed, I believe there is room. The biggest problem I have found 
>with some web designers/masters is, having found a clever bit of coding, 
>they squirrel it away, and paranoia rules. (not aimed at anyone on this 
>list, I hasten to add)
>
>I am well aware of the problem of bucket load's of emails crashing daily 
>into one's inbox. If this is a problem to any individual, then don't join 
>it. We live in a world of free choice (almost). It is when over long 
>attachments get bolted on to postings adding to download times, that I get 
>a touch miffed. We pay for the phone call in the UK.
>
>I am prepared at my expense (no change there then) to host such a web based 
>discussion group. Anyone interested? you can email me at
>d-group@ten-20.com and I will send you the link. This is just an idea, and 
>I would welcome any suggestions as to the parameters we need to work within.
>
>Smiles
>Paul Davis 
>

Received on Monday, 3 July 2000 13:51:45 UTC