Re: Suggested issues that may be addressed in next version of guidelines

JC:: "It is a fact that images are more accessible than words to non
readers."

WL: I hate to keep quibbling about this but *WORDS* are not the same
thing as their representation in text *OR* images. Further, textual
versions of words are themselves images. The graphical images we keep
trying to talk about are slippery as to what words they are supposed to
signify, more so than the (simpler?) images called "text."

The URL Jonathan gives is of course not the version of the WAI page that
I devised and of which he speaks. The experimental draft version I made
is on one of my hosted sites and if anyone is interested email me
privately and I'll point you to it. It is definitely not to be confused
with any official version and should not be made public. It is merely an
attempt to begin examining some of the issues that Jonathan, Anne and
others have raised: we must attend more closely to the large portion of
potential Web users who have different comprehension needs than the
other PWDs we are trying to serve. The continued exclusion of
learning/cognitive disabled folks is simply not acceptable. We cannot
blindly (pun intended) accept the fashions dictated by authorities in
the "research establishment" in these matters but must seek input from
the affected population. To blow my own horn, this matter is addressed
in the talk I gave at Toronto: http://dicomp.pair.com/talk.htm - the
pertinent quote is "the most significant thing that I learned in all
that is that you must listen carefully to your friends/clients and even
if it's your show, have the mind set that they are in charge."

The Working Groups of WAI have input that is heeded from some PWDs but
the people spoken of herein have as their *ONLY* input, some stuff from
people who work as their "teachers", mostly Jonathan, Anne, and Chuck.
This is something we must undertake because we have so much to learn
from people who have not been burdened by reading all their lives - a
problem from which all the rest of us suffer: "how do you know that?" -
"I read it somewhere"!!! 
-- 
Love.
            ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE
http://dicomp.pair.com

Received on Wednesday, 4 August 1999 09:41:15 UTC