Re: How competent must people be to use the Web?

Morten Tollefsen wrote:
> 
> To define necessary user competence to use WCAG 2.0 Web sites and to
* develop a framework for training and testing required skills.

I don't see that this is a useful skill level, as it doesn't include the 
skills in recognizing abstractions, like links, in the heavily disguised 
forms in which they often occur in real world web sites.  In my view, it 
is the need for many years of experience doing this, and a lack of 
practice in using the constructs in easily recognizable forms, that are 
the biggest blockers for elderly users.

(For elderly learners, if you can't summarise the rules on a single 
sheet of paper, the design is too complex.  I would venture to suggest 
that, if the WCAG guidelines have been drafted properly, a conversion 
course from basic use of Windows Notepad (including printing) to using 
the WCAG 2.0 web sites should fit on one page, with a summary of about 
one quarter of a page.)

> 
> There are various certification schemes and competency requirements
* for mastery of the PC. The most well known in Europe is the E/ICDL
* (European/International computer driving license) Such a standard is

 From what I've seen of ECDL book in the book shops, ECDL aims rather 
higher than passive use, and at how to write your own vanity web pages. 
In the examples I saw, it was actually doing accessibility a 
dis-service, as it was teaching people how to produce visual results on 
IE, not how to produce proper HTML.


-- 
David Woolley
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Received on Friday, 30 October 2009 08:38:00 UTC