RE: webwatch-l What To Do About .gif Files

Step back for a moment and ask yourself - "Why do they use an image in the
first place?"  It's apparent to me that the image of the coupon is taken
directly from the electronic pre-press the newspaper is using.

Does anyone honestly believe that a free service will pay someone to read
and type in the thousands of lines of text that appear in the coupons?
Especially since the newspaper has already paid someone to enter the
information initially into their pre-press system.

Looking at just one coupon for "Arco."  There are two maps, 4 separate
coupons, 6 corporate logos and (I'm guessing here) over a hundred words.
That's just one entry that might have a lifetime of a week.

If LONGDESC= was available, in this case, no one would take the time
required to put the information in.  Access is not access if it's
prohibitive to implement.

Charles Oppermann
Active Accessibility, Microsoft Corporation
mailto:chuckop@microsoft.com http://microsoft.com/enable/
"A computer on every desk and in every home, usable by everyone!"

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Al Gilman [SMTP:asgilman@access.digex.net]
	Sent:	Tuesday, November 25, 1997 6:52 AM
	To:	w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
	Cc:	kford@teleport.com
	Subject:	Re: webwatch-l What To Do About .gif Files

	to follow up on what Kelly Ford said:

	> The Orange County Register, a newspaper out of Anaheim,
California, has a
	> feature they call the Smart Coupon Book.  You can find the service
at
	> 
	> http://www.ocregister.com/ads/coupons/
	> 
	> and when you visit you will be able to search through a number of
coupons
	> offered.  The service seems to work quite nicely with the browser
of your
	> choice until it comes time to browse the actual coupons.  Each
coupon is a
	> .gif file that I'm assuming contains a graphical version of
whatever the
	> given company is offering.

	[snip]

	> Kelly Ford
	> kford@teleport.com
	> See my home page at http://www.teleport.com/~kford/index.html

	ASG: If a coupon-clipping example were used as an illustration of
	the new LONGDESC attribute, this would be a good explanation of
	why the new attribute is needed and would get the
	access-to-commerce issue before the web author community.

	On a longer time horizon, this scenario is also a good one for
	the Authoring Tool Guidelines team to consider.  These coupons
	are worth very little money, and are normally produced with very
	low-cost publishing setups.  The text defining the business offer
	needs to be captured on the way into the image, not as the image
	is reduced to a GIF.

	-- Al Gilman

Received on Tuesday, 25 November 1997 21:05:24 UTC