Re: A recommendation on customized web pages for blind users

Scott Luebking wrote:
quote
  I'd like to suggest that the guidelines include a section on
  customized web pages for blind users when the web pages are
  generated dynamically, e.g. search engines, catalogs, etc.
unquote

aloha, scott!

while i sincerely respect and admire the work and energy that you are putting
into the effort to ensure blind users (like myself) fully equal access to
web-based content, i am troubled by the term quote customized web pages for
blind users unquote...

my objections fall into 3 categories: philosophic, practical, and perceptual...

first, the problem of perception  -- or, more sensibly put, the connotations of
"tailoring for the blind"...  asking people to customize output specifically
for the blind is likely to evoke one of the following 2 reactions (despite the
case that can be made that an ever-increasing number of jurisdictions are
developing policies that mandate that certain categories of web-based content
be made accessible)

1. the economic counter argument: the blind population is too small for my
company to justify the expense
2. the i've already done it argument: we have a stripped down low graphics
version of our output slash site already

of course, the stripped down low-graphics versions of such sites still tend to
use authoring practices slash markup that decreases or interferes with access
to the page's content, but that's another topic for another emessage...

another perceptual problem is quote what does blind mean? unquote  does it mean
no usable vision?  some usable vision?  severely impaired vision?

ok, onto my philosophical problems...

1. the cyberghetto -- i don't want to be shunted into a cyberghetto, where
someone else is deciding for me what constitutes content customized for a blind
user...

2. the one-size-fits-all syndrome -- i wasn't produced by the plastic-mold
injection process (although i know that that assertion will come as a surprise
to several of the WG's members!) and what makes sense and works for me (as
someone who was fully sighted for the first 20 years of my life and has been
totally blind for the past 11) may not make sense or work for someone who has
been blind since birth, or who was not as fortunate as i to have had some
(extremely limited) exposure to the graphical user interface before becoming
blind...

practical problems:
1. what sorts of technology are you relying on to produce customized web pages
for the blind?
2. how well disseminated are the technologies you would advise a web-content
producer to employ?
3. how expensive will it be for the end user?
4. will the end user have to jump through hoops in order to get the technology
running on his or her machine (as is the case with getting the Sun Java VM and
the Java Access Bridge for Windows up and running correctly on a 32-bit
MS-Windows box)
5. what is the overhead entailed in utilizing the technology

ok -- enough carping...  what i want to stress is universal design strategies
that -- to the greatest extent possible -- eliminate the need for alternative
versions of a site or a site's output...  but, if you are going to push for
what you have termed "content customized for blind users" i'd advise you to
change the semantics a bit and ask for "content customized for serial access"
and/or "content customized for voice output"...

just my ha'penny's worth,
        gregory.



--------------------------------------------------------------------
ABSURDITY, n.  A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with 
one's own opinion.       -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devils' Dictionary_
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory J. Rosmaita      <unagi69@concentric.net>
Camera Obscura           <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html>
VICUG NYC                <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/>
Read 'Em & Speak         <http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/books/>
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Received on Wednesday, 17 November 1999 19:10:16 UTC