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Re: Using Tables

for

From: Steve Faulkner
Date: Feb 13, 2012 7:15AM

Hi Donna,

>When you're building your shiny new Ferraris for the Power Users, please
make sure the little old lady who just wants to drive to the supermarket
still can.

It is not people such as myself who build such things, it is companies such
as google, yahoo, microsft, IBM etc.
Yes they need to take into account there users, but if they do choose to
use newer aspects of the technology that don't work in IE6, the
technologies still need to be accessible with whatever baseline
technologies these companies choose to support, that is where ARIA and
understanding how to build accessible interfaces with newer HTMl5 features
comes into play.

We also need to take into account that many traditional software
applications are now built using web technologies, these may well not be
published n the open web for all to access, but accessed via company
intranets. In such cases baseline technology requirements can be reasonably
defined (as they are with more traditional desktop software) and therefore
not every user agent or version can be expected to be catered for.

regards
Stevef


On 13 February 2012 14:02, Donna Lettow < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Steve Faulkner:
>
> >many aspects of HTML5 are here right now and being used so it makes sense
> take it into account.Part of the accessibility support problem is/has
>
> > been that what is in specs and what is supported are not always the same
> thing.
>
> > As accessibility practitioners we need to be mindful of this and provide
> best practise advice based on implementation realities.
>
> As someone who is not currently a programmer/developer, but whose charge
> it is to ensure accessibility to my vocational rehabilitation constituents
> -- many of whom do not have access to the latest and greatest technology
> and who cannot afford to update JAWS each and every time Freedom Scientific
> releases a new version, and many of whom are not technologically savvy
> enough to know that people on Internet mailing lists mock the versions of
> Internet Explorer that they run (or that they run Internet Explorer at all)
> because they've never been taught how to update it - I worry that this rush
> to embrace the shiny new toys of HTML5 and ARIA is going to leave behind an
> accessibility underclass who won't have the equipment or the navigation
> skills to keep up.
>
>
>
> When you're building your shiny new Ferraris for the Power Users, please
> make sure the little old lady who just wants to drive to the supermarket
> still can.
>
>
>
> Donna Lettow
>
> Staff Specialist, Electronic Accessibility & Internal Communication
>
> MD Division of Rehabilitation Services
>
>
>
>
>
>
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