RE: These are accessible? I'm not sure they are

I'd very much doubt they are accessible ... browsing with scripts disabled
(as I tend to do) results in a blank page, at least for
http://www.resource.gov.uk/. (Tried in IE6 and Opera 6 / Win98).

I checked the source code and there are <noscript> and <noframe> elements. I
suspect the designer feels they have met their responsibilities, without
actually testing it. (The W3C validator shows a colossal number of errors,
despite the document claiming to be HTML 4.0 Transitional). As it is, they
have gone around adding these elements in a somewhat illogical fashion:

In pseudo code, the page reads:

<html>
[ some meta data ]
[ a script that writes out a frameset ]

<noframes>
<html> - again!
[ The meta data - again...]
[ a script to redirect you to a different page ]
[ some page content ]
</html> - for the first time
</noframes>

<noscript>
<html> - For the third time in the document!
[ the meta data - once more ... ]
[ a conventional frameset ]
</noscript>

So it is sort of three documents in one...

But if you look at the logic, as far as I can see, you get the following:

Suppose your browser does scripts and frames:
=============================================

You see the content, I assume as the designer intended.

Frames but not scripts
====================== 
(for example, the 13% of people who disable scripts even though the browser
is capable of running scripts)

My experience is you see nothing. You should go into the <noscript> element.
However, because there is an </html> tag further up the document, IE 6 and
Opera 6 (at least) seem to stop processing the document. So you get nothing.

Scripts but no frames
=====================

(Are there any browsers like this?)

Assuming there are, you would jump to the <noscript> element - where you
find a frameset. Oh well ...

No scripts, no frames
=====================

I tried this in Amaya. It had a list of five frames (with names but no
titles) (and three of which are blank) and some text telling me to
<link>Click here</link> to some other page. Sadly, this page was blue with
blue links, so was a little difficult to read!

Certainly an accessibility problem for users of assistive technologies. But
I wonder if the designer even considered the fact that a large percentage of
people use modern GUI browsers, but turn off scripts, disabling the site.

So a thumbs down, I think.

	Tom

Dr Tom James 
Senior Consultant 
=============================================================== 
Digitext - Online Information at Work 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Simon White [mailto:simon.white@jkd.co.uk]
Sent: 21 March 2002 15:21
To: WAI List (E-mail)
Subject: These are accessible? I'm not sure they are


Dear All,
I have just read a press release from an agency that has built a site that
is supposed to be accessible to the most current W3C standards for visually
impaired people. Well, I have taken a look and cannot make haed nor tail of
it through my Lynx browser and got most confused. As I don't rely on this
all the time, I was wondering if someone else could tell me that either I am
being stupid or that I am right and this website is not as accessible as it
claims.

The URLs are:
http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk
http://www.resource.gov.uk/

I am not looking for an in-depth report as I could run that myself. Just
interested in opinions on the site as it appears to you guys that use
Assistive Tech, etc.

Much obliged and kind regards to all
Simon
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Simon White
Copywriter
James Kelsey Design (JKD)
Westminster Business Square
1-45 Durham Street
London
SE11 5JH
Tel:  020 7793 9399
Fax: 020 7793 9299
Web: www.jkd.co.uk
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Received on Thursday, 21 March 2002 11:11:30 UTC