Re: A symbolic WAI homepage

At 11:12 AM 4/9/00 +0100, Jonathan Chetwynd wrote:
>Please contribute one  sentence (of 10 words or less) in plain english that
>you feel really has to be within the 300 words I suggest for the WAI home
>site in ten pages.

I guess the first question is who do we target with this page and if I
understood right you want it to be more for ordinary users and designers
with not much knowledge of WAI but interested in making their pages
accessible? So it would not be a home page where technical users would
frequently return to find out what is new, or would it?

When looking for easy material there is the getting started page in
http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted and WAI intro slides
http://www.w3.org/Talks/WAI-Intro/Overview.html. Maybe these and other easy
introductions (like the quicktips you suggested) should be more visible on
the main page and the long lists of stuff or more technical stuff divided
to their own pages (I guess you suggested this as well). At least the
historical stuff could be behind an extra link.

>I have reviewed the WAI page below, it has not been very pleasant.
>Please accept my apologies if I offend the authors.
>There is much that is great, but it is very well hidden.
>I really hope I found the right page folks.
>I personally find the page http://www.w3.org/WAI/ very poorly designed.

In my opinion, concrete, helpful suggestions (like yours) are always more
than wellcome. I agree that there is a lot that can be improved when the
resourses give in to do it.

Marja

>Keep the language simple, and I will endeavour to source the symbols once we
>have agreed the text.
>If we limited ourselves to a flick book style with no cross links, we could
>for this first draft possibly skip navigation, perhaps limiting ourselves to
>a site identifier.
>
>Alternatively you may all feel that creating a site that meets the needs of
>ordinary users, rather than technical users might be more urgent.
>
>REVIEW FOLLOWS
>
>>Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
>this logo could be about the same size as the text above or smaller and have
>more impact if well designed.
>
>>Resources  | Events |  Technical Activity | International Program Office |
>Involvement/Information | Team | >Sponsors
>The navigation bar is meaningless to a first time visitor, and I suggest
>should not be on the home or splash page. In fact not within our 300 words.
>One link somewhere will lead out for those that have understood what comes
>before.
>
>>March 10, 2000: User Agent Accessibility Guidelines become Proposed
>Recommendation
>What does this mean to a first time visitor? This is far too internally
>focused for a public site it is something from an intranet in the wrong
>place
>
>>February 3, 2000: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 become W3C
>Recommendation
>>ATAG Press Release, Testimonials, and Fact Sheet available
>as above
>
>>"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless
>of disability is an essential >aspect."
>>-- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
>Excellent  this is probably sufficient for a splash.
>"The web is for everyone.
>We must help everyone to use it" with a photo (very small) or better line
>drawing of Tim)
>please improve on the above
>
>>Mission
>>The W3C's commitment to lead the Web to its full potential includes
>promoting a high degree of usability for >people with disabilities. The Web
>Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in coordination with organizations around
>the >world, is pursuing
>OK so this is where my page ran out. this makes the whole page very
>difficult to understand.
>Well over 60% of the content was irrelevant to a first time visitor.
>>accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology,
>guidelines, tools, education & >outreach, and research & development.
>Why does neither the navigation bar nor the next section "Resources on Web
>Accessibility " follow the mission statement? There is not any point in
>making this list and then confusing people by immediately ignoring it.
>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----
>
>>Resources on Web Accessibility
>I do not propose to go through all of this in detail.
>Suffice to say it is full of acronyms that are meaningless to the novice.
>complain of navigation icons if you will this is at least as bad.
>>Getting Started: Making a Web Site Accessible
>>Quick Tips for Accessible Web Sites
>Hooray! these should be next after the splash, (which I think may cover the
>mission) and here they are. unfortunately the pages they link to need work.
>
>I chose the Quick tips page because they cut to the action quicker.
>
>>>QUICK TIPS TO MAKE ACCESSIBLE WEB SITES
>>>For Complete Guidelines & Checklist: www.w3.org/WAI
>>>Images & animations. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of
>each visual.
>>>Image maps. Use client-side MAP and text for hotspots.
>>>Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions
>of video.
>>>Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For
>example, avoid "click here."
>>>Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS
>for layout and style where >>possible.
>>>Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
>>>Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active
>features are inaccessible or >>unsupported.
>>>Frames. Use NOFRAMES and meaningful titles.
>>>Tables. Make line by line reading sensible. Summarize.
>>>Check your work. Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at
>www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT.
>
>of these I selected the tips most relevant to a novice and disability ie alt
>tags...
>the site is at http://www.peepo.com/access
>There is no need to tell people there is more to learn, they know this. They
>will find out more as they enjoy the site and progress.
>
>Events, News, History
>Great titles, separate pages.
>"News" We are writing the WAI site again in plain english" please submit
>something better
>"Events" probably skippable, 99.999% cannot visit the event.
>"History" I cannot think of anything perhaps you can? maybe the first
>graphics browser?
>
>Questions
>mail them to us,
>
>Jobs
>We need to employ or at least engage daily with people from all walks of
>life, given they have access to a computer.
>CD members would be great. Do you wonder how come we dont get inundated with
>requests for info from the public.
>Believe me it is not because they find it is easier to find the information
>than mail us.
>It is because it is very difficult to do either.
>
>
>If you got this far, thanks.
>Please contribute one  sentence (of 10 words or less) in plain english that
>you feel really has to be within the 300 words
>
>It was not Tatlin (a russian revolutionary artist), but someone very famous
>with a simiar name within the UK CD world pointed out many years ago that it
>was not possible to write about CD from a purely academic viewpoint, one had
>to engage in it. This site will be far more accessible and the project
>enormously improved by opening it to joe public.
>
>jay@peepo.com
>
>special needs teacher
>web accessibility consultant
>

Received on Sunday, 9 April 2000 22:33:57 UTC