Re: Re: [Web405] Exemplary Web Sites?

The primary problem with Text-only versions of web sites is: they mislead
people.
First- text-only does not equal accessible. A web site can be poorly
designed using only text elements almost as easily as one that includes
sounds and images.
Second- the text-only link is usually hidden at the bottom of a page
somewhere and by the time you find it you have worked your way through the
site anyway.
Third- The practice makes people think only of visual disabilities
Fourth-It encourages poor design (you can always just create another page
instead of making the first one good)
Marti

-----Original Message-----
From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 5:20 PM
Subject: Fwd: Re: [Web405] Exemplary Web Sites?


>A user on the Web405 (Los Angeles area web people) list
>replied to me with the message quoted below.  I've sent my
>answer to the list already, but can any of our "blind web
>users" and others with disabilities answer the question of
>"are separate text-only versions of a site good or bad,
>and why?"  Your personal feedback would be welcome.
>
>>On Wednesday, 6/23/99, at 12:40 PM, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
>>>No, text-only sites are less than optimal for accessibility
>>>reasons; a correctly done website doesn't _need_ a text-only
>>>site to be usable by everyone.
>>
>>What? Can you explain how a properly formatted, text-only site would
hinder
>>accessibility? Every blind web user I've talked to has said they much
>>prefer them. They don't have to wade through 4 or 5 (or more) image tags
>>before finding information, they don't have to deal with tables and
>>text-flow problems, their screen readers go right to the text and they get
>>their information quickly.
>>
>>(yeah, I know there are other disabilities out there, but I primarily
think
>>about "blind users" when someone says make a site "usable by everyone"
>>because they present the greatest challenge to a visual designer)
>>
>>If a site is generated from a database, it's very little work to setup a
>>text-only equivalent. Static sites are a little more work, but at the
>>minimum I make a sitemap or table of contents that's text-only and uses no
>>special tags.
>>
>>I agree that a correctly designed site can be useable by everyone, but I
>>don't see how a text site can hinder blind users.
>>
>>Matt
>>(note that I'm partially blind myself and do everything I can to make
sites
>>user-friendly to blind web surfers)
>
>--
>Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                   http://www.kynn.com/
>Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet      http://www.idyllmtn.com/
>Catch the Web Accessibility Meme!                   http://aware.hwg.org/
>Next Online Course starts August 2         http://www.kynn.com/+nextclass
>

Received on Wednesday, 23 June 1999 18:10:06 UTC