Must be Tesco... I did complain then too. Although not a customer for they do not deliver to this country, I am a shareholder and want a decent website from the compagny.
Sometimes feedback helps.. not always :-( CU, Bastiaan On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 19:2:38 +0000, J J Young wrote: > Hello Sam, > You may recall the run-in I had with a major UK supermarket > and its website a couple of years ago. I spoke to one of > their guys, who was quite dismissive when I said the site > was useless to many blind users, but at least he was available, > which was not the case with the lamentable UK Govt sites > (a lot of whose problems are due to reliance on the EDS > company, boo-hiss). > The supermarket got some bad publicity when blind customers > were told to use online ordering instead of the previously > available phone-in system. (There's a growing discrimination > by the BBC and others in favour of SMS messages instead of > email, phone or conventional mail.) A recent radio programme > about the problems faced by the disabled demonstrated the > poor performance of a Virgin company website when visited > with screen reader software. Sir Richard Branson's team got > on the case in double-quick time. > The supermarket now offers an alternative site to any user > with JavaScript disabled -- I don't know if it's selectable > by the hoi-polloi. They've turned it to their advantage by > getting an award from the RNIB, the UK's major organization > for the blind, yet the site uses a page background colour > that isn't in the "Websafe palette" (so there's a dithered > pattern in Exploiter). > So, if there's something in it for them, whether prestige > and awards or less complaints and a healthier bottom line > then they might change. But as long as it's cool to use > flashy techniques and NOT CARE about tripping up a proportion > of their visitors there's a problem. From my point of view > I want to use CSS more extensively but the Netscape 4 series > botch the page-display rather than ignoring stuff it doesn't > understand. I could easily ignore Netscape4.x, but I mustn't! > Maybe in five years' time... but there would still be a few > people left to annoy. > As to how to help the webmaster you contacted, you could find > him an award to apply for (or create one yourself!) and point > him to these online tools: > Web Page Purifier > http://www.delorie.com/web/purify.html > Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer: > http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html > Lynx Viewer > http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html > Search Engine Simulator > http://www.delorie.com/web/ses.cgi > -- this will show how useless an over-graphic page design > can be. > Hopefully, he'll find this all very useful and proceed to: > http://www.delorie.com/donations.html > There is also the question of SERVICE. The webmaster is > providing a service to his client and the site's visitors. > If he's only interested in showing off his use of a non- > standards compliant technique the site owner should hire > someone else with a more mature outlook. The designer SHOULD > have his ears wide open to any feedback. > Best regards, > Jake Young - ************************* Technische Redactie CQ-PA Bastiaan Edelman, PA3FFZ ************************* Attentie: e-mail adres bij Wanadoo niet meer gebruiken! [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.hetnet.nl/~ba8tian/index.html ** Virusvrij e-mailen? => Arachne browser/mailer **
