Re: FYI - Newsbytes

At 06:30 p.m. 03/25/99 -0500, Judy Brewer wrote:
>Right--the final article is at
>http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/128454.html. 

From that article:

>Jeff Thomas, director of marketing at iSyndicate, admits that accessibility
>isn't a top priority at the San Francisco-based Internet content service
>provider right now.

This is obvious to me from looking at their site. ;)

>But, he adds: "It's on our radar screen. It seems like
>something we would ethically want to do.

This is a major problem as I see it -- accessibility is _not_
about ethics, _not_ about being "kind" to the "disabled", _not_
about "doing something out of the goodness of our hearts."

Accessibility is just plain common sense and good business
sense; it's not an optional add-on like some charity contribution,
it's a basic part of putting a web page on the Internet!

>The short-term answer is we
>aren't doing anything now. The long-term answer is it’s definitely
>something we’d want to consider." 

Yeah, and we're also considering giving $100 to the orphanage
down the street, too.  Jeez.

Accessibility is neither a short-term nor a long-term "optional
feature".  It's part of daily life for many people who use the web,
and in this case, iSyndicate is sending the message "we don't care
if you can get at our content, you don't count if you have a need
(ANY NEED) for accessible web design."

I don't mean to tar and feather poor iSyndicate for one simple
quote (which may be out of context) in a news article, but I have
seen many people taking the same approach that Jeff does here, and
it amazes me how many companies simply Don't Get It.  And it
frustrates the heck out of me.

(NOTE:  Added jeff@isyndicate.com to the CC list.)

--
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                   http://www.kynn.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet      http://www.idyllmtn.com/
Professional ALT-text author                     http://www.kynn.com/+alt
Spring 1999 Virtual Dog Show!                     http://www.dogshow.com/
WWTBLD?  Validate your HTML!                     http://validator.w3.org/

Received on Thursday, 25 March 1999 18:48:06 UTC