Re: link to us: Is there a recommendation to provide a graphic for external linking? if so where?

Yes, it seems we agree in general. My point (which is really 
Jonathan's) is that for people with learning disabilities, very often

    McDonalds

isn't sufficiently recognisable - the font and colours of the trademark 
are important. The point about the peepo site is that it uses simple, 
memorable graphics (re-inforced in some cases with sound - oh for SVG 
1.2...) for navigation, so you can be helped through a couple of times 
until you recognise the links you need to get where you want to be.

People actually live in the world, so are likely to be familiar with 
some standardised images - Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue, Burger King, 
The London Underground, The Path Train, White Wings frozen meals, ...

So clear enough ways of recognising what something is going to be, and 
memorable enough ways of finding things again, are important - both 
graphically and in written content. It seems correct tht WAI has done 
some work on how to do this for written content (although there is 
stilll confusion between a restriction on freedom of speech and an 
explanation of how to ensure that you can be understood if you would 
like to), but very little for graphics. People like Joe Clark have 
looked a bit at the available work on colours and typography, some of 
the "common sense stuff" made it into WCAG 1, but there does seem to be 
room for a lot more work on techniques.

Cheers

Chaals

On Sunday, Jan 18, 2004, at 20:59 Europe/Rome, Tina Holmboe wrote:

>> One way of making things easy is to provide identifiers. We are almost
>
>   Yes. I do not think that anyone would dispute that. However, the
>   important point - which I have failed to make - is that the 
> identifier
>   you provide must pass along enough information so that the user
>   understands it.
>
>   This:
>
>> other hand, a giant yellow stylised M, in a particular font, on a red
>> background, is allegedly the most recognised symbol in the world. A
>
>   actually took me a moment to grasp - I am sure I would have been
>   quicker had I seen it. However, this:
>
>                                McDonalds
>
>   is also a form of graphical symbol, and easily as reckogniseable as
>   the stylished M. The reason for this is that people know what
>   McDonalds is. If they had not know it, they would not reckognise it.
>
--
Charles McCathieNevile                          Fundación Sidar
charles@sidar.org                                http://www.sidar.org

Received on Sunday, 18 January 2004 15:51:59 UTC