Re: Fwd: Accessibility, discrimination, and WCAG 2.0

At 07:58 PM 10/21/00 -0700, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
>2.  If we give "use alt text" and "use graphics" the same status,
>     then we are demanding graphics on all pages or we are saying
>     that alt text may not be that important.

Kynn,
    Is the only time alt tags are needed for graphics? Are there other
elements for which alt tags are used? If not, describing the need for alt
tags along with explaining the need for graphics seems to tie them together. 

>3.  While acknowledging that it increases usability for everyone,
>     might it be possible that graphics represents a "good to do"
>     concept and not a "must do"?

Are alt-tags merely "good to do", or a "must do"?

>4.  Who decides whether the material is written at an "appropriate"
>     level?  Without any way to gauge this, it's left to the author's
>     discretion.  Will that be sufficient when a person with
>     cognitive disabilities writes to the webmaster and says "this is
>     too complex for me"?

If a cognitively disabled person can identify a page with needed
information as "too complex for me" via e-mail or mail, the page is too
complex for an awful lot of people who couldn't or didn't write, and the
author has sorely missed his mark in judging his "audience". 

  Is the webmaster required to rewrite the
>     entire site because of one cognitively disabled person, or is 
>     it a WCAG-sanctioned defense to say "I don't expect people of
>     your cognitive level to use this site"?

Yep, and that will put him in the news as a bad guy! Seriously, it will
depend on the intended audience. If the audience is the taxpayers of the
U.S. then a certain degree of cognitive ability can be assumed to have the
capacity to pay taxes. Ditto for voters. But information on rights that
apply to those with cognitive disabilities has to go further in meeting
their audience than the IRS does ... Ditto for information on social
security and medicare ... 

>5.  What effect do our guidelines have on the ability of people
>     with disabilities to author web sites effectively?
>
>I'd like to see these discussed (and not brushed off as they are
>all pretty important) and possibly added to the issues list.
>
>--Kynn

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 Sunday, 22 October 2000 18:55:12 UTC