WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: Bobby

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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Sep 10, 2002 7:31AM

I personally have a concern with the Bobby icon as any means of conveying
compliance.

Web pages are generally organic things... they change and are modified over
time. Yet most developers (honest now - you too) don't ALWAYs verify their
modifications... time is precious, we're under deadlines, it's Friday
afternoon at 5:15, etc., etc. Having a little icon down at the bottom of
the page lulls us into a false sense of security. In the past week alone
I've seen at least 6 pages with the Bobby Icon (and W3C HTML validation
icon) which did not qualify. Was the developer deliberately seeking to
mislead? I doubt it, but none-the-less it was "false advertising".

Until such time as Bobby (or another, equivelant application) can
dynamically parse a document and append a "stamp of approval" on ONLY
compliant pages, I take the inclusion of the icon with a huge grain of salt.
And since the "accessibility" of a site cannot be judged via mechanical
tests alone I don't think we'll ever see that day.

Don't get me wrong... stiving for and advocating accessible web sites
(especially in the private sector) is an admirable and forward thinking
position and it should be recognized appropriately, but is the Bobby icon
the right way to go? Perhaps an "Accessibility Matters" icon, with a link
to appropriate content would better serve the the common good. It would
convey that the developer was concerned about the site's accessibility, that
they worked hard at ensuring the site was accessibile, and if a user
discovered an issue that the developer would appreciate hearing about it so
that it might be corrected.

Paul, perhaps this would be a great initiative for WebAIM?

JF



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