RE: Animated GIFs and accessibility guidelines

As I spent hours and hours trying to resolve ADA issues to be able to post a
newsletter created by someone in Publisher, I came across this site that
added SALT to the wound.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/using/weblife/publisherdemo.htm
<http://www.microsoft.com/office/using/weblife/publisherdemo.htm> .  They
are bragging about how easy and wonderful it is, yet they don't even have a
simple "alt" tag built in when they turn everything into a text embedded
graphic.  

Please, has anyone gone head to head with the makers of these products?
Don't they pay attention to W3c at all?  Maybe I am naïve, but I want them
to explain their thinking to me and how they will address the very important
ADA issues.

Thanks for any and all responses as I get ready to write to them directly. 

Rachel

~*~* ~*~
Rachel Harris, M.S., L.P.C., N.C.C.
Multnomah County Department of Community Justice
Web Site Coordinator
501 SE Hawthorne Blvd Suite 250.  Portland, OR 97214
Phone- (503) 988-6048  Fax-(503) 988-3990  TDD-(503) 248-3561
INTEROFFICE MAIL: B503/Suite 250
Rachel.D.Harris@co.multnomah.or.us
http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dcj/
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



		-----Original Message-----
		From:	David Poehlman [mailto:poehlman1@home.com]
		Sent:	Thursday, February 15, 2001 10:23 AM
		To:	ADAM GUASCH-MELENDEZ; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
		Subject:	Re: Animated GIFs and accessibility
guidelines

		in answer to your question of whether or not we can find the
skip
		link, yes.  I can click on it but for some reason as with
many
		internal links, using jfw 3.7 and ie5.5sp1 I become
disoriented as to
		where I am on the page when I follow them.

		----- Original Message -----
		From: "ADAM GUASCH-MELENDEZ" <ADAM.GUASCH@EEOC.GOV>
		To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
		Sent: February 15, 2001 11:52 AM
		Subject: Re: Animated GIFs and accessibility guidelines


		Animated GIFs shouldn't be a problem, since they can be
stopped by any
		browser that can display them (at least among the major
browsers - I'm
		not sure if this is true for WebTV or other "internet
appliances").

		On the Bobby site, listing the sponsors wouldn't be
appropriate for
		the ALT text, but would be appropriate for a LONGDESC. The
designers
		may have decided that since the image is a link to detailed
		information about their sponsors, that wasn't necessary. I'd
say it's
		a judgement call, and an defensible choice. However, running
Bobby
		against that page, in the Priority 1 User Checks it says:

		   "Do you have a descriptive (D) link in addition to
LONGDESC?"

		which - regardless of conformance with the WAI guidelines -
suggests
		that the site doesn't actually implement what the Bobby
designers
		consider to be "best practices." There are several other
areas, such
		as in the extensive use of tables for layout, where the site
appears
		to move away from theoretical ideals. On the other hand, the
site
		seems to work, which to me is by far the most important
concern. The
		WAI guidelines, are, after all, guidelines. They're intended
to help
		people develop accessible sites, but if the focus becomes
adherence to
		every checkpoint, instead of the overall goal of
accessibility,
		they've failed in their purpose.

		Another question related to that site - they've got a link
to skip the
		navigation stuff and go directly to the content, which is
great. The
		link, however, is a transparent gif, with the ALT text
providing the
		description of how it's to be used. Will screen readers
currently in
		use pick this up properly?

		>>> Brian Kelly <b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk> 02/15/01 04:08AM >>>
		Guideline 7 at
		http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
		says
		"Ensure that moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating
objects or
		pages
		may be paused or stopped."
		and
		"Until user agents allow users to freeze moving content,
avoid
		movement in
		pages."

		How does this apply to animated GIFs?

		Does it apply, for example, to the animated sponsorship ads
at, for
		example,
		http://www.cast.org/bobby/

		I understood that movement on screens could cause screen
readers to
		lose
		their focus.  Does this happen with animated GIFs?  If so,
is this a
		concern?

		Also, while looking at the Bobby page, the alt text for the
GIF simply
		says
		"Scrolling list of sponsors, without mentioning their names
(IBM,
		Microsoft,
		etc.).  Again does this conform to the WAI guidelines?

		Like Nick, I don't want to pick on the Bobby site or the
CAST staff,
		but it
		is a Web site that those with interests in accessibility
will look at.

		Thanks

		Brian (hoping this isn't an FAQ)

	
--------------------------------------------------------------
		Brian Kelly
		UKOLN
		University of Bath
		BATH
		BA2 7AY
		Email: B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
		Phone: (+44) 1225 323943

Received on Friday, 16 February 2001 11:40:36 UTC