- From: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>
- Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 20:37:40 -0500 (EST)
- To: A.Flavell@physics.gla.ac.uk
- cc: WAI GL <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Alan is absolutely correct here. I was responding to Patrick's use of design when what we really meant was presentation. (When Ian says design he means design. So let me state clearly that I agree with Ian and Alan about good design, and further that I feel presentation is less important than accessibility in general, and that this document in particular should not take any other approach. Sorry for my earlier carelessness with words. Charles McCN On Sat, 13 Mar 1999, Alan J. Flavell wrote: On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, Charles McCathieNevile wrote: PS:[snipped] > IJ: > We attempt to emphasize that good design produces accessible documents, > thus I don't think there's a conflict. > CMN: > It would seem foolish in a document about how to produce accessible > content to do anything other than stress accessibility as more important > than design. These two usages of the word "design" seem to be contradictory. I always feel it's a mistake when people apply the word "design" to refer only to visual cosmetics. I regard design as a much more comprehensive and fundamental activity. From the context, it appears that IJ does so too. All too many "web designs" that one sees around, have been composed merely to be graphical cosmetics without any underlying structure. When it's proposed to their author that the page should be made accessible, their usual response is "that would need an alternative text-only version, for which I haven't got the time or resources". In fact (as I hardly need to say to the participants on this list!), a properly _designed_ page could in many cases look just the same as theirs when viewed in the narrow range of viewing situations they "designed" it for, yet, due to the soundness of its underlying design, the self-same document can be essentially accessible in and of itself. I certainly support the motion that the construction of alternative versions is best kept for the most exceptional of situations, and the guidelines should avoid reinforcing authors' prejudices that creating alternative versions would be the routine way to make a "normal" web page accessible. thanks --Charles McCathieNevile mailto:charles@w3.org phone: +1 617 258 0992 http://www.w3.org/People/Charles W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI MIT/LCS - 545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139, USA
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