Thread Subject: Re: Summaryof proposednewWeband Softwareprovisions

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From: William Loughborough
Date: Wed, Apr 04 2007 11:55 AM

David Poehlman wrote:
> I hope it's not text only. Screen readers for instance even older ones can
> deal with low graphics and text only just doesn't cut access for a lot of
> people and navigation of content is critical and can not be optimally
> achieved through text only pages. Plus, there is the whole idea of sharing
> content. If I'm looking at a page and someone else is viewing the same
> screen, we need to be able to fully access that content.
Historically the "last resort" of putting up a text-only substitute for
otherwise inaccessible material has been one of the main black marks
against previous WCAG and now Section 508 criteria. It encourages
copouts, i.e. it provides an unmonitored decision to make a "separate
but equal" for somebody to say "oh, I'll just put up a text page and
pass muster."

One of the most important points is that accessibility needs to consider
the main point David is making: someone using a screen reader who gets
substitute pages OR NULL ALT-TEXT is denied the ability to work
cooperatively with others on a Website and this is simply not a level
playing field. Just because someone can't see the actual screen doesn't
mean it's not important that a rose is being used to signify Summer and
a wilted rose indicates Fall.

This is as good a time as any to make pro-active choices for providing
accessibility to all phases (presentational information as well as
content) of design/maintenance of Web materials.

Love.

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