Re: Accessibility is for all users

Having almost as much historical perspective - corporate memory, if you 
like - as William I find myself in total agreement with him.  Perhaps WAI 
needs a more clearly enunciated, or at least more easily found, statement 
of its "core values".  The WAI Mission statement (which does not, in its 
current form, appear on the WAI Home page) is pretty clear but might be 
strengthened.  The mission statement can be found at 
http://www.w3.org/WAI/about.html#mi

Chuck Letourneau

.  At 2004-06-15 12:29, you wrote:

>At 08:32 AM 6/15/2004, Roberto Castaldo wrote:
>>...think we should try and transfer a simple but very important concept: 
>>Web accessibility is not only for people with disabilities.
>
>Since this point gets made over and over and over I think perhaps there 
>should be a small statement (boiler plate) that explains the EO and 
>general WAI attitude about this.
>
>We have belabored this endlessly and the present situation is that there 
>are no documents that do not address the benefits to everyone from 
>accessibility, even though they do this in various ways. The fundamental 
>issue is that the WAI was formed to ensure/further accessibility for PWD. 
>The benefits to everyone are of course important and central, but within 
>the context of WAI documents, we have, after much wrangling (much of which 
>is not readily apparent to newcomers to the Working Groups), decided to 
>deal with PWD concerns first and essentially tout the benefits to everyone 
>as, while not an afterthought, not the central issue.
>
>I believe that we reached consensus on this a few years ago. Perhaps times 
>have changed, but there should be some "policy statement" addressing this 
>issue that will not die.
>
>--
>Love.
>
>Everyone/everything/everywhere/always connected
>
>
>
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