Example: Real-time feed of satellite photos

I received the following inquiry from someone who works at a state
agency here in Texas.  It presents an interesting challenge, and it
seems like something that might furnish a good example for us. I'm also
curious to know what solutions members of WCAG WG would propose in order
to meet WCAG 2.0.
 
<begin query>
Our agency receives satellite photographs of Texas that are
automatically formatted into jpegs and loaded to our Web site. These
images are real-time, from one-hour to about 12-hours old. These are
continually and automatically updated on the site.

I have an opportunity to review these Web pages now because they are
being revised to add additional types of satellite photos. It's my job
to make recommendations regarding the content's usability and whether it
meets state Web site accessibility standards. 

On these pages, the user selects up to four different parameters (using
drop down lists) and then clicks a "display image" button. A jpeg is
returned to them in their browser. 

Since these images are automatically updated, alt text specific to each
photo can not be added. And I'm not really sure how they could be
descriptive enough, anyway. Besides, the photos are not presented inside
Web pages, they are just the jpeg files.

The state rule says we should provide an alternative format for pages
that are not accessible. I don't think that is possible in this case.
Would you suggest some disclaimer text on the page stating that these
images are not accessible?

</end query>

 
Thanks!
John


"Good design is accessible design." 
Please note our new name and URL!
John Slatin, Ph.D.
Director, Accessibility Institute
University of Texas at Austin
FAC 248C
1 University Station G9600
Austin, TX 78712
ph 512-495-4288, f 512-495-4524
email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu
web http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility/
<http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility/>