- From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
- Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 11:45:25 -0800
- To: Scott Luebking <phoenixl@sonic.net>, poehlman1@home.com, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
At 8:19 AM -0800 12/24/01, Scott Luebking wrote:
>in a way goes back to the question that I was asked by some CHI-WEB
>people, especially in light of Jakob Nielsen's report. How much
>is accessibility improved by the guidelines? How is this improvement
>measured?
I think this is an excellent question that needs to be addressed by
the WCAG working group; I think it's vitally important that we have
some testable metrics not only to whether or not our guidelines are
being met, but also to what degree that improves (or doesn't improve)
access by our core audiences.
If Nielsen's work teaches us nothing else, it should teach us that
standard empirical methods of research and study can be applied to
accessibility and it's not just pie-in-the-sky hopes and personal
anecdotes. [*]
--Kynn
[*] Yes, I am aware that many organizations, e.g. TRACE, have been
doing research on such matters for years; however, I still see
very little of hard, citable research going into guideline
development, and a lot more weight is given to the dogmatic
desires of markup purists or to a few random, unsupported
assertions by people with or without disabilities.
--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com> http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain http://idyllmtn.com
Web Accessibility Expert-for-hire http://kynn.com/resume
January Web Accessibility eCourse http://kynn.com/+d201
Received on Monday, 24 December 2001 14:53:47 UTC