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Re: LIFT Transcoder being pimped

for

From: julian.rickards
Date: Aug 5, 2004 10:24AM

John wrote:

Think of Color blindness. They should not have to go to a text-only site to
be able to view the site, Or a low vision, or arthritis. If you take away
from their experience when you could of addressed those disabilities without
doing a "Text-Only" then you are discriminating against them. Text only
should be an ADD-ON to your already accessible site. Ok I'm off my soap box.


If I may step up on your warmed up soap box, I believe that text-only
produces a second-class product which then suggests (to me) that it is
intended for second-class citizens. This is NOT how I feel people should be
treated and for that reason, I do not support the idea of generating
text-only pages (even if they contain all of the content). We have the
techniques to "allow" our pages to be used by all (most?) technologies, why
not give *everyone* the same page and allow them to use it as they can or
must.

Accessibility is not just about colours, images and table-less layouts, it
is about language, document structure (what structure is present in a
text-only page) and quality content. If you have poorly written content, no
headings or lists (despite the appearance of both) and disorganized writing,
how does text-only help you? Not at all.

Accessibility should be part of the original specifications of a design, not
a plugin added at the end.

OK, soap box nice and warm for the next speaker.

Jules

-----------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
A/Digitial Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publication Services Section,
Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,
Vox: 705-670-5608 / Fax: 705-670-5960