Re: User customization using a style sheet switcher and server side scripts.

Off topic, but had to chip in on this one:
<http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp>

Am not totally convinced by the Adam and Eve story or the world being made
in 6 days, but it gets a good point across with a smile, and smiling points
tend to be remembered!!

smiles
Paul Davis
----- Original Message -----
From: "P.H.Lauke" <P.H.Lauke@salford.ac.uk>
To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 9:49 AM
Subject: RE: User customization using a style sheet switcher and server side
scripts.


>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Paul Davis [mailto:paul@ten-20.com]
> > Sent: 05 November 2003 23:20
> [...]
>
> > generally you will not hear " I open my
> > browser" We all
> > are aware of netscape, opera, linux and apple but over 95% of
> > Joe Public are
> > not, or it is a lost science to them. This is not
> > condescending.... this is
> > fact.
>
> Playing devil's advocate: on the same token, when Joe P is told
> "you can make your text display bigger/smaller" (via their
> browser's text size menu) the usual reply is "how ?" (usually
> while they're hunched over their desk with the nose almost touching
> their screen). So, having a font size set to absolute values
> would prevent them from resizing text in IE, but most of them are
> not even aware that they could do that in the first place.
>
> I don't think it's outlandish to expect that users with disabilities
> that need specific adjustments to their browsing experience (larger font
> sizes, certain colour combinations, etc) should also learn to use
> their tools effectively, and also to be able to choose the right tool
> for the right job. You can't use a screwdriver and then moan that it
> makes a lousy hammer.
>
> This takes me back, to some extent, to a discussion with a colleague
> some time ago where she wanted to include a message on a site saying
> something along the lines of "if you are blind/visually impaired, you
> should be using a screenreader to access this site...screenreaders are
> pieces of software that etc etc" which struck me as patronising and, most
> of all, completely unnecessary. Is the onus on the developers to let
> users with disabilities know what alternatives are out there, or (at least
> partially) on the users themselves ?
>
> Anyway, sorry to keep harking on about this point. I'll shut my face on
> the issue now ;)
>
> > To sum up may I point out NASA spent a $million to design a
> > ball point pen
> > that would work upside down and in weightless conditions, on a space
> > exchange one Russian expert was asked how they solved the problem, he
> > shrugged, licked the end of his pencil and carried on doing
> > the crossword.
>
> Off topic, but had to chip in on this one:
> <http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp>
>
> Patrick (is it Friday yet ?)
> ________________________________
> Patrick H. Lauke
> Webmaster / University of Salford
> http://www.salford.ac.uk
>

Received on Thursday, 6 November 2003 05:30:07 UTC