- From: Denise Wood <Denise_Wood@operamail.com>
- Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 13:14:30 -0500
- To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
1. Does universal design mean that the experience of one person has to be limited so that another person can have a similar experience, e.g. a slick, flashy design? 2. If there is a technique which some people can use to speed up their use of information, but other people can't use and will be slower at processing information, should the technique not be used? What if there is no other equivalent technique that increases the speed that a person can use the information? 3. Does a person using access technology have the same experience as someone not using access technology even if they are referencing the same web page? Scott You have raised some really important points here. I am grappling with those issues daily in my role within a University as academics and developers resist strongly the notion of reducing the functionality and/or state of the art features of their Web pages to accommodate a base "universally accessible" web site. A recent example might illustrate the point that universally designed sites can provide better functionality for all users - not just people with disabilities. I describe that briefly here: One of our requests from faculty was to develop an interactive simulation of a satellite communication system. I have spent a great deal of time working with our designers to ensure they are aware of the W3C and Section 508 guidelines and make every effort to follow these guidelines in their development work. The programmer met with an academic from the School concerned with the development of this satellite communications program. While the academic was open to suggestions, neither the programmer nor the academic would accept that there was any way of reproducing this interactive experience for visually impaired users since the output is essentially a simulated screen display of what look like satellite dot patterns. At the very least we agreed we could use alt tags and longdesc to describe the simulation's functionality but that of course represents a different experience than the original concept. I emailed Norman Coombs asking him if he had come across anything that could meet the requirement of the simulation in a way that could be accessible for people with disabilities. He sent me a prototype of an auditory graphing program which has a similar display (scattergram plots). Although a different application entirely, the academic and programmer could immediately see the potential. Essentially the auditory version narrates the options (ie x and y coordinates) that can be changed by the user and the changed visual display is accompanied by auditory signals (a bit like Morse code) which change pattern according to the pattern of dots on the visual display. This is true universal design - the auditory signals in fact make the simulation a more enriching experience for all students. The ability to selective turn off visuals and/or sound provides maximum flexibility and caters for different learning styles as well. In summary, to me, universal design is challenging our traditional "narrow" view of what can be achieved. It forces us to move outside our current experiences to be innovative in order to create powerful, flexible web environments that cater for a variety of user needs. Just my experience but thought it worth sharing.... ------------------------------------------- Denise Dr Denise L Wood Lecturer: Professional Development (online teaching and learning) University of South Australia CE Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000 Ph: (61 8) 8302 2172 / (61 8) 8302 4472 (Tuesdays & Thursdays) Fax: (61 8) 8302 2363 / (61 8) 8302 4390 Mob: (0413 648 260) Email: Denise.Wood@unisa.edu.au WWW: http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Denise.Wood
Received on Friday, 14 December 2001 13:15:07 UTC