- From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
- Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 11:23:05 -0700
- To: Paul Davis <paul@ten-20.com>, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
At 4:38 PM +0100 10/22/00, Paul Davis wrote:
>As to who is responsible for accessibility it has to be the
>designer. If we have a house built that later falls down who takes
>the blame? If we buy equipment that is faulty who has to replace it?
Paul, I think this is a bit of an oversimplification -- because the
house builder is not entirely responsible for the user's experience.
(And it's user experiences which are inaccessible or accessible to
a given user.)
The people responsible include:
(1) The user, for making sure that her software and hardware is
configured correctly.
(2) The hardware manufacturers.
(3) The operating system manufacturer.
(4) The browser software manufacturer.
(5) The manufacturer of any additional assistive technology, hardware
or software.
(6) The web designer and/or the web programmer associated with the
site in question.
(7) The people who create the standards (protocols, languages)
used by the web designer or web programmer.
At the WAI level, we're primarily concerned with people in (6) and
(7), but it's not entirely the fault of the web designer if someone
cannot access information; you can't assume that it will always be
the designer's fault.
(Likewise, if a house falls down, you can blame a number of people --
the carpenter, the people who supplied the wood, the building
inspectors, etc. etc. etc. It's not as simple as just blaming the
architect!)
--Kynn
--
--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
http://www.kynn.com/
Received on Sunday, 22 October 2000 14:34:29 UTC