- From: Anne Pemberton <apembert@crosslink.net>
- Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2000 09:54:54 -0700
- To: Dave J Woolley <david.woolley@bts.co.uk>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
At 07:27 PM 10/6/00 +0100, Dave J Woolley wrote: > You should be encouraging the extension > of the text character repertoire, not unconstrained > imagery. Can't do that, Dave. It doesn't solve the problem. While a standard set of icons would be nice for those who need a full replacement of text, and it would certainly be nice if there was a set of common icons that would aide navigation, but only graphics and multi-media can effectively aide the comprehension of the content itself. Just as there are times when the content of a page will be textual, there are times when the content is graphical or multi-media .. and most frequently the content is best presented for the widest disabled audience when both text and graphics/multi-media are used to aid comprehension and usefulness. Incidently, the different presentations of an icon, for example, the printer icon to indicate something can be sent to a printer, is VERY easy for young children to negotiate as I learned last year working with K-2nd graders (age 5 to 8) when we had an old slow printer for the lab that would jam up everytime a graphic was sent to it. Children with computers at home recognized the printer icon and used it ... it caused such a problem getting the kids' work out, that the county techie brought us a new, faster printer that can handle the graphics output --- why? Because it's an essential part of learning at this age, and for some disabled folks, an essential part of comprehension at any age. Anne Anne L. Pemberton http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Pav/Academy1 http://www.erols.com/stevepem/Homeschooling apembert@crosslink.net Enabling Support Foundation http://www.enabling.org
Received on Saturday, 7 October 2000 09:08:11 UTC