- From: Chris Kreussling <CHRIS.KREUSSLING@ny.frb.org>
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 14:56:35 -0500
- To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
>>> <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org> 11/20 8:29 AM >>> ... For the most part, text is portrayed in one of two ways on a Web page: inside a graphic or in the page's HTML, the language a browser reads to create the page. Screen-reading programs such as Winvision, Windoweyes and JAWS read aloud the text encoded in a Web site's HTML. But when the software gets to an unidentified graphic, it will simply say "image" and move on to the next bit of text. Because text is increasingly rendered in image format instead of in HTML, this often results in key information being bypassed. ... The federal government seems to be keeping this audience in mind. Doug Wakefield of the government's Office of Technical and Information Services, who is blind, said his office is currently working on a set of standards due out next year that will mandate that government Web sites be accessible, something which Wakefield said could have a sweeping, if indirect, effect on the private sector. "Just remember, the government is an awful big customer," he said. If industry makes products available to the government that allow for accessible Web designing, he added, "they're not going to sell it just to the government, it becomes available for anybody." <<< And guess what the GSA's Web site looks like? Yup: Blocks of text rendered as a single image with no ALT text, even on the "text-only" pages! See http://gsa.gov/ftsintro_text.htm for an example. <author>Chris Kreussling</author> <disclaimer>The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System.</disclaimer>
Received on Monday, 23 November 1998 15:01:10 UTC