Re: Some thoughts and Possible Action Steps for CD

Kynn,

	I suspect you are making a moutian out of a molehill. Your Virtual Dog
Show site is about dogs. Add a dog picture to the opening page, and you
have made the page accessible to those who use pictures for navigation.
Another point (I think I suggested this to you some time back), was to
change the word on the link that goes directly to the pictures of the dog
entrants to something more illustrative of the page than the word
"Catalog". "Dogs" or Dog Pictures would be more illustrative. There is also
still the problem of the ad at the top of the page from "Living Free" that,
most times I've visited, shows a cat or two, adding more confusion as to
what the site is really about. When visiting the page, the message that the
site is about dogs doesn't happen unless the text is read. I didn't check
this morning, but when I looked at the catalog pages before I noticed the
graphics were too small to be usable, and would be greatly improved by
having the full-sized picture available by clicking on the small one. If
you want people to understand why a dog was chosen for a prize, you need to
supply a better/larger picture.  

	In the commonly used authoring programs for simple pages, such as Front
Page, it's very easy to add a graphic, but it's not apparent unless you are
very familiar with the software, to add the alt tag, and not possible to
add a long description without knowing html. Likewise, it is easy to add a
table to organize information but tagging it for all users is an onerous
(Squicky?) task. 

	It will not require a total redesign of the page to includ a picture of a
dog at the top of the site. You now have a nice graphic of a blue ribbon
where the dog should be. The blue ribbon can be moved to the top right of
the page leaving the page title between the two illustrative graphics (the
blue ribbon indicates there is a contest involved). Can you ask the sponsor
to put dog picture/s in their ad on this page?

	When I read the guidelines, I was happy with the term "multi-media", which
I took to include simple graphics, photos, drawings, etc. I don't read into
it that you *have* to use the fancy stuff. 

	My husband, who is my frequently used example of what people with
dyslexia/cognitive disabilities need and want on the web, is planning a web
page for an organization he belongs to. He has decided the graphics he will
use, but is flummoxed (squicked?) by writing the text. His "brand" of
dyslexia impacts his text writing more than his text reading so he is
impacted more by the requirement to include text on a page than to include
graphics. 	

	As with the rest of the accessibility guidelines, the needs are best
addressed in the planning of the page instead of adding it later. 

					Anne

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

Received on Monday, 27 March 2000 17:07:15 UTC