Re: What instead of click here?

At 09:44 AM 10/9/2001 , David Poehlman wrote:
>you hit it on the head. <slang>  Let's approach it from the beginning
>non mouse user's point of view or from the point of view of cognition.
>Click here does not tell me what to do.

Sure it does.  Why are you assuming only mice can click?  And
are there any users out there who honestly are confused and
come to a halt when they encounter "click here" and who would
be easier able to "follow this link"?  I think not.  This is
a non-issue.  It's like saying "see you later" to a group of
friends that includes a blind person.  Sure, if you want to be
willfully ignorant you could take it literally and object "NO
I WON'T SEE YOU LATER", or you could just understand that it's
meant to mean something non-literal.

If I'm on a chat room I will often say "See you later" if someone
logs off.  But OH NO, I HAVEN'T ACTUALLY SEEN THEM AT ALL,
since they're across the country or world!  Big deal -- this
is just terminology, and at BEST someone who chooses to be
oversensitive will get their feelings hurt.  Irrationally hurt
feelings are not accessibility, though, nor are they usability.

You can click with a keyboard.  You can click with nearly any
access device, and those devices specifically produce the effect
of a "click".

"Click" doesn't mean "use a mouse", and if you think it does,
then you're being overly literal, and if you think it introduces
accessibility barriers because "not everyone clicks" then I think
you are in some sort of fantasy land.  I prefer to live in the
land of REAL accessibility problems and REAL usability problems
and not dwell on hypothetical situations.

Okay, so who here has seen the words "click here" and just sat
there staring at the screen (or listening to the output), helpless,
unable to figure out what to do?  How long did you sit there
before leaving the web site or giving up entirely, because you
said "I HAVE NO MOUSE AND I MUST CLICK?"

No, the answer is, even if you felt sad because you had no mouse,
you understood -- or quickly learned -- what "click here" means.
It's not an accessibility problem, pure and simple, and it 
removes usability barriers in some cases.  So let's not fight
the "click here" term and spend our energy on real problems.

--Kynn

--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@reef.com>
Technical Developer Liaison
Reef North America
Accessibility - W3C - Integrator Network
________________________________________
BUSINESS IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL.
________________________________________
http://www.reef.com

Received on Tuesday, 9 October 2001 12:53:42 UTC