RE: [Fwd: Re: practical info for creating accessible web pages]

Seems to me that the attacks on the authors of the WAI guidelines are not
appropriate.  An example Mr. Chapin uses is instantly debunked by the fact
that this list has spent ridiculous amounts of time (in my opinion) on the
issue of block quotes.  The archives will show this.  Clearly the blockquote
tag is misused HTML when it's not formatting a quote.  That is one of the
points of the guidelines.  Separate content from presentation.  Personal
attacks are counter productive.  I agree the guidelines are not always
clearly written.  There have been attempts to address the fact.  The example
sitting in front of me are the Quick tips cards.

-Jamie

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	David Poehlman [mailto:poehlman@clark.net]
		Sent:	Friday, May 05, 2000 9:04 AM
		To:	wai-ig list
		Subject:	[Fwd: Re: practical info for creating
accessible web pages]



		-------- Original Message --------
		Subject: Re: practical info for creating accessible web
pages
		Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 08:47:15 -0400
		From: Paul Chapin <pdchapin@AMHERST.EDU>
		Reply-To: "* WEB http://www.rit.edu/~easi"
<EASI@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
		To: EASI@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU

		> We often refer folks to the following site:

		> Chisholm, W., Vanderheiden, G., & Jacobs, I. (1999). Web
content
		> accessibility guidelines 1.0 - W3C recommendation
5-May-1999.
		> http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/wai-pageauth.html

		I'm sorry, but I find the stuff from www.w3.org to be pretty
useless.  It's
		long winded, confusingly organized (it's hypertext taken to
an extreme), and
		full of recommendations that are either not essential (use
cascading
		spreedsheet instead of blockquote to indent) or pointless
(use longdesc tag
		dispite the fact that none of the current common browsers
support longdesc).
		If I pointed my users to those pages, they would take one
look at them,
		decide either I was out of my mind or that making pages
accessible would be
		a massive undertaking, and abandon any attempt at
accessibility.

		The guidelines were clearly written by programmers and html
geeks who were
		much more interested in conceptual purity than getting the
job done.

		Paul Chapin
		Curricular Computing Specialist
		Amherst College
		http://www.amherst.edu/~pdchapin

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Received on Friday, 5 May 2000 17:11:08 UTC