RE: Accessibility, discrimination, and WCAG 2.0

Suzanne Nikolaisen wrote:
"One thing about many of the non-accessible sites is
that they were created by people who have access to
develop for 2 FREE browsers: IE and Netscape.  They
can easily test their pages in those browsers.  As a
developer I've been on a quest for free accessible
browsers and the only one that I've heard about so far
is Brookes Talk . . . Since, for me, learning about
accessibility is an 'after hours' project and I don't
have an endless budget I can't go around buying up
browsers to see how my pages are handled with them."


Suzanne,

Often the companies that build accessible browsers will provide free copies
to developers. Personally, I think that this is a very wise idea. It helps
to ensure that more sites "look" good in that browser, and it provides added
publicity. Usually, the trade-off is that you must include an icon on one of
your sites and link it to the browser's home page. That seems fair.

On most of my sites I try to include a page that talks about accessibility
wrt the site. I tell my clients that it is "good PR" for them. That gives me
a page to add such icons if need be.

I got a copy of pwWebspeak a couple of years ago by this method. I don't
know if they're still willing to do it. It doesn't cost them anything: as a
"temporarily able-bodied" person, I am not a potential customer anyway.

Try contacting those companies to see if they'll work a deal with you.

Charles Munat,
Seattle, Washington

Received on Monday, 23 October 2000 13:33:15 UTC