excellent and right on! dwain On 2/24/08, Breton Slivka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 8:04 PM, Steve Green <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > "Accessibility, though in a sense is trivially easy once you know it" > > > > That would not even be true if it was possible to 'know it', which it > isn't. > > Accessibility isn't just a bunch of facts that you have to learn, and > it's > > not just about compliance with the WCAG checkpoints. That's a good > starting > > point but it only tells you if a website *should* be accessible. > > > > To assess whether a website *actually is* accessible you need to > understand > > how people will perceive and interact with the content. That requires > > understanding of user agents, hardware platforms, assistive > technologies and > > all kinds of disabilities. It also requires the ability to balance the > > conflicting needs of different stakeholders. It requires us to keep > learning > > and reassessing our viewpoints as all these factors change and new > > technologies and design techniques emerge. > > > > Maybe it is trivial when you know all that, but I don't think any of us > know > > enough to start thinking that way. > > > > Steve > > > Here, I used the phrase "in a sense" perhaps, to try to capture more > meaning than it was capable of holding. There are, as you have pointed > out two ways of "knowing" accessibility. You can know how to build > your site such that it "should" be accessable according to the > standards which assume that all user agents are following the > standards. > > Then also there's the more difficult and expensive kind of > accessability where you actually test whether your target users can > really use the site or not in reality rather than just the theoretical > scenario that the standards describe. > > When I said "in a sense" I meant the first kind. The kind that is > trivially easy once you know all the techniques and standards. It is > particularly easy in comparison to the second kind. The first kind is > still seen as difficult and costly to many developers who may not even > be aware of the second kind. Nevertheless, "accessibility" of the > first kind is worth doing, and is trivially easy once you know how to > do it. > > Accessibility of the second kind is also worth doing. But in a world > where many developer cultures have not even come to grips with > accessibility of the first kind, accessibility of the second kind is a > tough sell. > > > > ******************************************************************* > List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ******************************************************************* > >
-- dwain alford "The artist may use any form which his expression demands; for his inner impulse must find suitable expression." Kandinsky ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
