RE: Site Critique

On the no frame version of this page 
"http://www.sapphiremag.com/98jul/a_fset.htm" there is a link to the 
accessible version.  Using PW WebSpeak (voice based browser 
www.prodworks.com) and Lynx (free text browser) for testing will aid you 
greatly.  Many specialized browsers have the capability to list only the 
hot links.  Therefore, it is a bad practice to use a non-descriptive link 
such as "here" as is done in the sentence "The site also uses Javascript 
for navigation and visual effects, you are very welcome to look around by 
clicking on -Link- here but you will get irritating Javascript errors (just 
say no to any dialogue boxes that pop up!)".  Try saying something to the 
effect of "To browse our accessible no frames version." and hyperlink the 
whole sentence.  Hyperlinks should be able to stand on their own in a list.

Many people, including myself, do not like having two versions of a site as 
they tend to get out of synchronization.  It is extra work to maintain a 
two sites and often the less popular / less visited site is the one to 
suffer in a time crunch.

Not to be a naysayer, but it is unlikely to be able "to be totally 
accessible in every known flavour of browser and blind reader" without 
limiting your site to unformatted text (which has its own problems). 
 Before I am jumped on me hear me out, there are still browsers out there 
and in use that were not too concerned with adhering closely to the W3C's 
HTML standards.

Good luck

-Jamie Fox

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From:  Skill Zone[SMTP:sue@skillzone.demon.co.uk]
Sent:  Saturday, July 11, 1998 10:24 AM
To:  W3C; love26@gorge.net
Subject:  Site Critique

Great! Here it is then:

http://www.sapphiremag.com/98jul/noframe/opentoc.htm

The original version of the site is at http://www.sapphiremag.com

The original includes puzzles and games which do not translate, because the
use of tables and frames is essential to the mechanism of the game.

Any and all suggestions to improve accessibility gratefully received.


Sue

Received on Monday, 13 July 1998 13:26:37 UTC