Re: Fwd: Accessibility, discrimination, and WCAG 2.0

At 07:11 PM 10/23/2000 , Anne Pemberton wrote:
>For example, would a "reasonable man" foresee that an uncovered
>hole in his yard could be fallen into by a toddler who lives next door with
>no fence between?

Yes.

>So, would a "reasonable man" foresee that if he writes a
>web site about growing flowers, could a cognitively disabled find his site
>and want to use it? 

No. :)

Most "reasonable people" who are web designers would not tell you
that they would expect a cognitively disabled person to use their
site about flowers, and would say that they are not designing for
that audience.

Instead, they would say "a requirement of this site is that you be
able to function in a non-cognitively-impaired manner."

Do you think that is an acceptable thing for a flower web site
to state?  (The sentiment, not the wording; if you don't like the
specific wording, then rewrite it appropriately and consider that.)

Some people have objected to the lack of images on the WAI site or
the W3C site -- is it a sufficient defense to say "it's just not
intended for them, sorry?"

This is what I fear by the "reasonable person" concept -- that the
average person is not nearly as "reasonable" as you would be.

> >Can you offer a definition of "reasonable" which can be applied
> >in this way?
>Reasonable: That which can be anticipated by an ordinary, un-prejudiced
>person given the required information. Required information would be
>information on the needs and uses of the intended users.

The average person using the Internet would say:

      A computer is a complex thing.  Using the web is almost too
      hard for me, and I'm not cognitively impaired!  Clearly, the
      web is not designed for use by people with cognitive
      deficiencies, and thus there should be no general requirement
      that sites should be made accessible to those people.  If
      there is a need for sites for them, then someone should make
      specialized web sites for them, but I still don't see how
      someone with cognitive impairments would be able to understand
      the complex concepts of "web sites", "email", "URLs", and
      other web stuff.  I can barely understand them myself!

Do we dare trust the "reasonable person" to do the right thing?  My
guess is that most web designers, if they read a "reasonable
person" clause, would assume that they are reasonable.  Then they
would apply the above logic, which looks reasonable.  And therefore
they would conclude that people with cognitive disabilities are
not their target audience and it's unreasonable to support them.

(I'm not being facetious.  I've seen this happen in other cases;
for example, I have seen people state "the web is a graphical
medium; therefore, if someone can't see graphics, they have no
business being on the web, and I won't support them on my sites.
If someone else wants to make sites for Those People, then they're
free to do so, but my sites aren't for Them."  You can recognize
this argument by the fallacious division of "Those People"!)

>Please keep asking questions. I feel a solution is in the making. 

Yeah, I think we're getting closer.  You said:
>Required information would be
>information on the needs and uses of the intended users.

I don't have that information myself.  You and others do, so perhaps
what we need is to engage in more question/answer dialogue of this
kind, where I play the role of the questioning, ignorant, but
willing-to-learn web designer, and you play the role of the domain
expert in the CD field.  And someone else, hopefully, can document
this.  (By the way, I don't mean that I or Anne alone should play
any role exclusively -- this is just a model for a way that we might
be able to draw out specific information of value.)

What do you think I need to know, as a web designer, about the needs
of the specific users we are talking about (those with cognitive
disabilities)?


-- 
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                    http://kynn.com/
Director of Accessibility, Edapta               http://www.edapta.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet   http://www.idyllmtn.com/
AWARE Center Director                      http://www.awarecenter.org/
What's on my bookshelf?                         http://kynn.com/books/

Received on Monday, 23 October 2000 18:48:46 UTC