RE: Granularity of conformance claims

At 11:55 AM 7/22/1999 -0400, Bruce Bailey wrote:
>Anne --
>I would be glad to share the site, but I can't (don't have permission / 
>don't have the technical ability) since it is currently on a private 
>intranet.

I, too, would have no idea how to get on an intranet, unless I had access
to a box on it ...

>The site does precious little for the truly cognitively impaired.  The site 
>is pretty, but that is really for everybody (especially the non-technical 
>bureaucrats that are funding the project).  All parts of Checkpoint 14 are 
>addressed nicely, but the site remain totally inaccessible to a non-reader.

I agree that meeting checkpoint 14 would not meet the needs of a
non-reader, tho it may, or may not, meet needs of cognitively impaired
folks with some reading skills. 

Based on my development of "strategies" so far, I'd suggest that an
all-graphic version of a page would not meet the needs of the cognitively
impaired folks with some-to-average reading skills - a page which combines
graphics and text would. I suspect the site was developed for the
cognitively impaired folks who need auditory input either with or without
visual stimuli (graphics, animation and/or text). An all-text version that
doesn't work in speech while giving you a view of the original page isn't
going to work for some of the cognitively disabled, tho it will work for
some others.

>Really what the author is trying to do is to twist the WCAG against itself 
>by playing one disability group (the learning impaired) against another 
>(the blind) [sigh] -- all without really doing anything in particular for 
>the first group! [heavier sigh]

Not trying to do; he's doing it! And he's pointed out what needs to be
"Fixed" in the guidelines very nicely... The guidelines don't give him much
to go on to build a page accessible to the widest number of disabled folks
including specifically cognitively disabled folks. That work is still ahead. 

					Anne
Anne L. Pemberton
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Pav/Academy1
http://www.erols.com/stevepem/apembert
apembert@crosslink.net
Enabling Support Foundation
http://www.enabling.org

Received on Thursday, 22 July 1999 13:09:02 UTC