- From: David Poehlman <poehlman@clark.net>
- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 11:21:01 -0500 (EST)
- To: Scott Luebking <phoenixl@netcom.com>
- cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
I'll lay it out for you but it isn't pretty. it is the responsibility of those developping the systems and software to make it possible for them to be accessible. it is the responsibility of any publisher of electronic media to provide that accessibility. we are not just talking about the "disabled" here. the responsible party in the latter case is the person in charge. and when we get right down to it, it is the responsibility of the consumer to make a difference in the climate such that an awareness of a difficulty is achieved and presure if necessary is brought to bear to make things happen as it always is in the market place. As to your initial question. yes, I get message from attendees of my workshops and visit sites of people who have attended them. We stress 504, 508, 503 and the bit of ada that applies. we tell them that they can have legal problems but that they can easily be avoided with a few simple changes and that there are people and instructional materials out there. as for time, we don't have the time to get our work done now, so just add it to the plate. we make sure that the people at the top get the message loud and clear so that it is easier for the developpers of material to work. sometimes though, it is the other way around. sadly a developper is the one who wants to be the bigshot and use the fancy tools and anybody who doesn't use netscape... too bad! On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, Scott Luebking wrote: > Hi, > I was wondering if anyone has been doing a long term follow-up to > trainings on web accessibility. A pattern I think I'm seeing seems > to be: > > 1. Attend workshop > > 2. Be exposed to unexpected problems on web pages > > 3. Be appreciative of the exposure > > 4. Go back to work > > 5. Realize the implications of the technology gap, i.e. extra work, > conflicts on whether to take advantage of modern inaccessible technology > > 6. Go into shock > > 7. Do some easy stuff > > 8. Put rest on "to do" list for when there's some free time > > > I ran into one attendee from the UC Berkeley workshop at a coffee > shop who was fairly frustrated in trying to be accessible and be > current like her manager wants the site to be. Her question was > who is responsible for making sure that accessibility is current > with the technology. Is it her responsibility to compensate for > the failings of the technology world and/or the disabled world > in letting the technology gap develop? > > Scott > Hands-On-Technolog(eye)s touching the internet voice: 1-(301) 949-7599 poehlman@clark.net ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/poehlman http://www.clark.net/pub/poehlman
Received on Thursday, 30 October 1997 11:21:43 UTC