WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: text-only version of web pages

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Jan 30, 2013 6:00PM

Please forward to list. I may benefit hugely from all thoughts and
research and ideas on accessibility.
I,for one, do not want a special or text-only website. Things like
landmarks, autocompletion, tabbed navigation, asynchronous updating of
page sections (if I am properly notified of them), onlline chat,
tickers (to some degree) and others make websites more usable for me
if I know how to operate them and the visual sepct is not messing with
the screen reader focus.
I want to use the same website as my peers with access to same info.
The moment we start designing separate websites for disabilities, I
think we'll make it much harder on ourselves, having to update and
maintain multiple versions of your website is never an attractive idea
for any developer or project manager I ever met, especially site like
grocery stores with constantly changing prices, specials and other
time dependent features.
Plus, I just really want to be able to use the same software as
everyone else. If I can't I want to find out what's stopping it and
try to help solve that issue. One man alone can't do it, but through
the exchange of ideas and getting together, we can make it happen, and
make sure it keeps happening.


On 1/30/13, GF Mueden@ < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I am listening, Steve. Tell me, please, where do I find information
> about the tools and how to use them? And the different approaches for
> different websites? Has the trade created such a resource list?
>
> Hopefully, ===gm==>
>
> On 1/30/2013 12:30 PM, Steve Green wrote:
>> Your browser already provides all the tools you need to access
>> well-designed websites. You can turn off images, in which case the
>> alternate text will be displayed. You can turn off styles and apply
>> whatever text and background colours you want. This will also convert the
>> pages to fluid design so you can set any window width you want and the
>> text will reflow and there will not be a horizontal scrollbar.
>>
>> Unfortunately badly-designed websites will continue to give you a poor
>> user experience. You may need different approaches for different websites,
>> such as leaving styles turn on while setting the text and background
>> colours you require. I have found that this works well on some websites
>> and not others.
>>
>> You should not be so dismissive of those of us who are fully-sighted. Many
>> of us on this email list do a great deal of work with people with a wide
>> range of visual impairments and we do have a good understanding of their
>> needs. All too often they are not aware that the tools they need are
>> already available or they do not know how to use them, which is not the
>> fault of the website designers. Whilst I don't always agree with Patrick,
>> he is highly experienced and deserves more respect.
>>
>> Steve Green
>> Managing Director
>> Test Partners Ltd
>>
>>