- From: Anne Pemberton <apembert@crosslink.net>
- Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 18:37:00 -0800
- To: love26@gorge.net (William Loughborough), <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
At 02:49 PM 11/23/00 -0800, William Loughborough wrote: >At 04:42 PM 11/23/00 -0800, Anne Pemberton wrote: >>... When the author selects a text and marks it bold, he/she is talking >>directly to you the user, that this is more important than the other text ... > >The problem is a "cultural bias" that is so ingrained that it is very hard >to shake. > >The only reason that a selection of "bold" means "more important" is >because the author and user have some previous agreement to that effect - >it is not anything specifically contained in the meaning - it might just as >well mean that the material so marked is unimportant and may be ignored, >that it is marked for deletion, that it should be accompanied by clapping >hands, that... Understood, William. So, enter the concept of "classes" instead of using the conventional mark-ups (B, I, U)that have meaning to students learning to use textbooks and people who use word processors regularly, but not perhaps beyond that group ... In marking up a piece of a textbook, one would use "definitions" to mark certain words in bold and perhaps a certain color ... and the fact that these words are "definitions" would be conveyed to the user rather than just intuited ... How exactly is this conveyed? How does the user use this page? Do they look at the class Definition and decide they'll show that in blue, or what? >What isn't clear to most who argue about this is that: THE BROWSER, IN >CHOOSING TO RENDER <EM> AS ITALICS IS USING ITS OWN DEFAULT STYLE SHEET. It >is just making choices that seem intuitively obvious to most users - but >it's still a style sheet! That makes sense, William. It's a "standard" style sheet. And I understand that some pages fit neatly into a "standard" style sheet, but others fit into a "custom" style sheet from the author ... if the cutomization is to suite a specific audience not well served by the "standard" it is "accessible", but if it goes into a "custom" style sheet because it's fun to do for the author, that is an entirely different concept of web pages ... >The efforts to provide meaningful inclusionary procedures for people who >have other conditions aren't deliberately overlooked - we just haven't much >experience in those areas but are willing to learn. I know. And, speaking as a web author, sometimes the "fun" between author and user misses it's mark ... But, then sometimes, hearing your audience say "oh, wow!" is worth a lot more than dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's in the great advances of the world vision! If you enjoy midi music, there's some neat Thanksgiving music selections at http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/songs11.html-ssi When I did that site with the kids this week, I sang a bit for them, even tho the tempo on "Over the River" is a bit quick...! Me, who was was a high school teacher, singing to little ones to a computer! What a hoot! Oh, what the technology brings out in each of us! Anne > >-- >Love. > ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE > > 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 Thursday, 23 November 2000 18:39:55 UTC