...I thought this of sufficient import to post. it can help point up
problems and potential solutions. Thanks...
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Break this page!
Resent-Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 11:59:30 -0500 (EST)
Resent-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 11:58:38 -0500
From: Joe Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Aaron Doust and I have been working on an experiment in access to
photographs contained in Web pages.
There are three issues at stake:
1. Not all browsers can display graphics. Lynx and WannaBe are text-only
browsers, for example.
<http://lynx.browser.org/>
<http://pluto.njcc.com/%7Edtp/wb2/wannabe.html>
2. Some nondisabled netters surf the Web with graphics loading turned
off because it's faster.
3. Blind and visually-impaired people can't see the graphics or can't
see them well, and/or may also be using a text-only browser or have
graphics loading turned off.
Four Web pages at Aaron's site have been developed to show how, in the
real world, this problem can be solved. We are bringing accessibility
out of the realm of the theoretical here.
First of all, every image on Aaron's site (not just the test pages in
question) now has an alt text, which is required in HTML 4.0 and has
always been recommended in previous versions of HTML. A great many Web
authors fail to include the dead-simple feature of alt texts, which by
themselves make a site easier to use for people in the three categories
above.
<http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH/#A1>
We have produced four subpages whose photos have written descriptions.
(They're Aaron's photos and he wrote the HTML; I wrote the
descriptions.) The photos depict various biketrials riders in Perth,
Australia.
<http://www.space.net.au/~adoust/information/background/background.htm>
<http://www.interlog.com/~joeclark/hardplace.html>
<http://www.interlog.com/~joeclark/trials-judging.html>
If the topic isn't of much interest to you, well, make allowances. The
point here is that even a hobbyist page can be accessible, and if
hobbyist pages can be, corporate Web sites easily can be accessible,
too.
There are four pages with four different approaches. Note that the URLs
are each a mile long.
1.
<http://www.space.net.au/~adoust/gallery/riding/margaret_river/photos_margaret_river.htm>
These photos use a novel approach of linking a text description to the
actual caption of the photo. You thus have three ways to interpret the
photo without graphics: From the alt text, from the written caption, and
from the long description that caption links to. This approach works in,
say, journalism sites where photos are given captions, as was the
convention in the print newspapers they often emulate. It solves the
problem of cluttering up pages with D. links to descriptions. It
introduces its own problem of cluttering pages with two visible
descriptions and one invisible description all of the same thing.
2.
<http://www.space.net.au/~adoust/gallery/riding/east_perth/photos_east_perth.htm>
Here, we adhere to the HTML 4.0 standard for the LONGDESC tag for long
descriptions. Since no browser anywhere in the universe supports this
tag, the best you're going to do with this page is to view the source
code and admire its brilliance. Perhaps version 5.0 of Netscape and
Explorer will properly support LONGDESC. Or perhaps Opera will beat them
to it.
<http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/objects.html#h-13.8>
3.
<http://www.space.net.au/~adoust/gallery/riding/kings_park/photos_kings_park.htm>
In this page, all photos have descriptions, links to which are given by
(D). But all the descriptions are in one single file with different
<#anchor> links.
4.
<http://www.space.net.au/~adoust/gallery/riding/subiaco/photos_subi.htm>
All photos have descriptions, links to which are given by (D). All
descriptions occupy their own separate files.
Other techniques we could have used, but did not, include setting up a
neighbouring single-pixel GIF the same height as the image that is
itself a link to the long description. This is an unsatisfactory
solution for various reasons. If you're using a graphical browser with
graphics turned off, your font size is quite unlikely to be small enough
to display the (D) or D. so that you can actually click the thing. If
you have graphics loading turned on, you never see the link, and might
notice it only if you catch the status line changing as you happen to
move the mouse over it. This technique tends to render you more blind
than you already are. Solely in text-only browsers does this approach
provide accessibility and elegance.
Further, we could have written nifty little lines of Javascript that
tell you to click the image for a full description when your cursor
hovers over the image. That wouldn't work here (a) because there's no
Javascript and (b) because selecting the image brings up a full-size
version of the photo. Still, it works in two other sites:
<http://vallartabooks.com>
<http://tropicasa.com>
...which actually do a number of good things for accessibility and are
themselves models.
We did not write descriptions of the entire pages as a visual whole, and
all the images are presented within tables. Those may be problems for
some visitors.
What we want you to do is to BREAK OUR PAGES. Load the four subpages in
every conceivable combination of platform, browser, graphics mode, and
assistive technology. The more unlikely, the better. We especially want
to hear from PDA users (like Newtons or PalmPilots) and people using
speech output. Tell us how the pages look and how easy or difficult they
are for you to navigate and interpret. Also, if you want to really go to
town here, try fiddling with your settings to BREAK THE PAGE. Select,
for example, a 96-point font, or a 6-point font. Then ask all your
friends, with their own odd little settings, to try to BREAK THE PAGE.
(Forward and post this message anywhere you want.)
Every aspect is up for discussion, from coding to appearance to writing.
All suggestions articulated in a reasonably good-natured tone will be
considered, and we may update the pages over time to try new things.
Give us feedback:
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=Break%20this%20page>
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=Break%20this%20page>
However, to minimize unnecessary cross-posting, you may wish to limit
your responses to us directly and not to the various mailing lists.
Collated comments will be forwarded in due course.
--
Joe Clark
Listmanagerboy, Media Access
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<http://www.interlog.com/~joeclark/axxlist.html>
-
Visit the jfw ml web page: http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~nallan/jfw
