RE: Ouch!!! (was: RE: Nielsen's Latest Alertbox & a personal prot est)

I don't see why this is even a discussion. Isnt it just the case that
accessibility is just usability for all? 'Usability' often unnecessarily
ignores sectors of society and accessibility is the reminder not to do that
for lots of reasons, not just equity but for economic reasons - why exclude
potential customers by failing to get accessibility right.

Carl

-----Original Message-----
From: Phill Jenkins [mailto:pjenkins@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: 11 November 2003 21:04
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Ouch!!! (was: RE: Nielsen's Latest Alertbox & a personal
protest)







Regarding the phrase: accessibility = usability

I would say that accessibility is necessary but no always sufficient for
good usability.  Usability is more subjective, while accessibility has been
defined as complying with the technical standards in WCAG or 508.  And in
some cases, in the name of usability, accessibility is broken.  For example,
many mouse only features are designed to make the software more usable to
the mouse capable users, but unfortunately have broken or did not enabled
the accessibility for the keyboard only user.

Regards,
Phill Jenkins

Received on Monday, 17 November 2003 09:27:57 UTC