Re: A new iconography? (was:How to convince businesses to be accessib le...)

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