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RE: Java and accessibility

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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: May 15, 2002 4:54AM

On a completely un-related matter (except for the accessibility issue)...

While the physically disabled is certainly an obvious, visible group of
users, one group often overlooked is those with cognitive disabilities.
This could be users with serious learning disabilities right down to those
with poor literacy skills or those whose mother tongue is not English. It
is important to ensure that the text and language we use is clear, precise,
and consistent to ensure that the content is accessible to these users as
well.

As a consultant to a number of Canadian Government agencies, one trend which
crops up time and again is their persistent use of Acronyms: HRDC, DND/DDN,
CLF, PWGSC, on and on and on... If you aren't familiar with these agencies,
their acronyms can be quite meaningless.

And so on to the point: Elizabeth (apparently) works for a British
government agency. Her sig file goes on about confidentiality, steps taken
to ensure being virus free, etc., even down to the fact that RNIB has a
charitable status. Except, nowhere within her sig file is RNIB defined!

It occurs to me that Web accessibility is more than just html documents
which can be accessed by screen readers; many consider email to be the
"killer app" on the internet today. It would stand to reason then that
accessible emails is every bit as important as accessible web pages, with
many of the "rules" we apply in one area being relevant to the other.
Elizabeth should consider modifying her sig file to better define who/what
RNIB is... (with no offence), it's already big enough that adding this
little bit of extra (yet extremely useful) information will make a
difference.

Just a thought...

JF


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