- From: Steven McCaffrey <smccaffr@MAIL.NYSED.GOV>
- Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 08:36:58 -0400
- To: <kasday@acm.org>, <love26@gorge.net>, <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
"If it's a simple page, you're doing it yourself, and you have a decent editor... even a WYSIWYG editor... accessibility is simple. ..." "However, accessibility is time consuming if:..." I think the approach here of breaking down the question into cases, with specifics, as Len does here, is very helpful. I think this approach is the best for all accessibility questions at all levels. -Steve ------ Steven McCaffrey Information Technology Services NYSED (518)-473-3453 >>> "Leonard R. Kasday" <kasday@acm.org> 10/19 3:58 PM >>> In my experience, the effort to make a page accessible can range from small large. Graphical content--at least decorative graphical content--is the least of it. If it's a simple page, you're doing it yourself, and you have a decent editor... even a WYSIWYG editor... accessibility is simple. Mostly just some ALT text. Although you do have to put some reasonable effort into wording the ALT text. You can even use tables for layout until user agents support positioning (Guideline 5.3). However, accessibility is time consuming if: 1. Your page has graphics that convey real meaning, e.g. flow charts, graphs, scientific diagrams. This is a real issue in distance learning. 2. Your page has any non-trivial mathematics, at least until users have access to and experience with browsers that handle MathML. 3. You have a data table with a lot of columns, at least until user agents support HTML table extensions. Especially if the table cell contents are just things like "yes" and "no" (which leaves user guessing what they apply to). There are ways around this, like invisible text, but they take time. 4. You need to publish on your web site material that was created by tools with inadequate HTML support, so that you need to do extensive hand editing (e.g. Microsoft Publisher, although their support tried to help me with it, or anything that just produced PDF, unless the layouts were very simple). Len At 08:23 AM 10/19/99 -0700, William Loughborough wrote: >BK:: "I think it's very time-consuming and difficult to follow the >guidelines and cater for bugs in the browsers :-(" > >WL: It is very time-consuming and difficult to learn to write HTML stuff >in the first place, particularly when you "cater for bugs". The >incremental time added to achieve Guideline Compliance is like all our >other learning curves, steep but invigorating. Try to remember that >accessibility=usability and *ALL* your readers will benefit from Web >sites that conform to accessibility guidelines. > >-- >Love. > ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE >http://dicomp.pair.com > > > ------- Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D. Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and Department of Electrical Engineering Temple University Ritter Hall Annex, Room 423, Philadelphia, PA 19122 kasday@acm.org (215) 204-2247 (voice) (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
Received on Wednesday, 20 October 1999 08:39:07 UTC