- From: David Woolley <david@djwhome.demon.co.uk>
- Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 08:48:02 +0100 (BST)
- To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Accessibility, means that if the current standard doesn't allow an > accessible in window print button; Then we need to change the standard. The problem with im content controls is that they are all different. Nothing prevents a browser having a print button targetted at those with learning disabilities, although I would argue that such a browser needs to be part of a complete hardware plus software solution, in which, for example, placing a sheet of paper in the printer means print the current page and use subsequent sheets until complete or the page is changed. That seems to be the lowest level of abstraction I can think of, and it seems that your users are unable to work with abstractions. > A brief survey of flash sites will show you that by far the majority > that provide a suitable activity also have their own print button. This reflects the commercial use of Flash. Flash authors want total control, and they generally don't care about the ability of their users to generalise to other sites; this is actually why there is a big conflict with many of your requirements and other accessiblity - you are often trying to do the same things that commercial designers do, the very things that result in accessibility problems for commercial web sites. To the the extent that your wants are aligned with commercial designers, you many of your questions would be better answered in the forums used by them to learn how to trick popular browsers into doing what they want. I think that there is a useit.com article on DVD menus, and the difficulties that having every DVD different causes. > migrating understanding to the toolbar, rather understanding that the > timescale is years rather than days. It may be years, but at least its only years * 1. If they have to learn the design conventions for print buttons for n different sites, that might be years * n, even if they don't forget the first one befor they have learned the n-th. An ordinary user will get to cope with Flash, in content, print buttons, because they will learn an abstraction of a print button that allows them to recognize many different forms. That is still more difficult an abstraction than using the menus (note that for infrequently used applications I use the menus, because even I have difficulty guessing what the icons mean, because, except for a very few (or which print is usually one) icons are difficult to guess. For an ordinary user, icons are not an aid to cognition, but simply an aid to *re*-finding frequently used functions. I sense, that, like many commercial authors, you are trying to use the web browser as a tool of the author, when it should be a tool of the reader.
Received on Sunday, 25 May 2003 03:48:07 UTC