Re: single browser intranets

If the pop-up were an ordinary link to an explanation of how this site works,
it would be interoperable back to the CERN line-mode browser (which actually
came after the graphical one that Tim started with, but...)

Which is why some sites do explain how they work. Using something
interoperable like a normal hypertext link.

People like Jonathan Chetwynd have been reminding us that interactivity is
very important to making content accessible to some people.

My point is to recognise that interactivity is good for some people, and can
be bad for others - the challenge is to reconcile the two. It's not a very
amazing point, and other people have made it better.

Charles McCN

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999, Scott Luebking wrote:

  Hi, Charles
  
  I'm not quite sure what your point is.  Issues of interaction via
  web technology will be coming more to the forefront as recognition
  of the benefits becomes more common.  People like interaction.
  They learn better.  It's more interesting and fun.
  
  I haven't heard of people doing much research on how interaction on web
  pages can improve accessibility.  As I've been watching blind people
  using web pages, a common problem I've seen is getting a sense of
  context of the page.  (It's not that dissimilar to what a blind person
  has to do when moving into a new office or bedroom.)  What would be
  helpful in web page interaction for long distance learning (or other
  situations) is having a key that the blind person hits and a box pops up
  giving a quick explanation of the purpose of the page in the course
  along with any special aspects about the page.  (Current software
  technology has a hard time recognizing purposes of pages.)
  
  Again, this technique falls outside of interoperability, but sure would
  make it easier for blind users.
  
  Scott
  
  PS  If interoperability is such an important issue, why doesn't W3C
  just say all browsers should work the same?  (There would be the
  nagging real world business issues of product differentiation
  and browser improvement.)
  
  
  
  > I agree that students would prefer interaction to text. The flip side is that
  > students will vastly prefer text to not being able to use essential or
  > important course materials.
  > 
  > Charles
  

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Wednesday, 27 October 1999 12:38:01 UTC