WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: print style sheets (Re: Welcome to the WebAIM Discus sion List)

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From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Feb 4, 2005 8:31AM


> Must be Friday, 'cause I can't see what point you are trying to make
> here. If it in favour of alternate print versions, (as opposed to
> print stylesheets) then I think that you have got it wrong.
> WCAG 11.4 states: "If, after best efforts, you cannot create an
> accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page..."
> That point alone goes against the provision of Print Versions.
> Your refernce to users with learning impairments is weak as well - if
> they can't handle the page as is, how are they supposed to learn to
> look for a 'Print' button/icon when they want to get rid of the
> distracting images etc.?

As many have said, even those without any need for AT find 'print versions'
very useful.

Ideally, you'd have a 'print version' link, as well as use print CSS for the
screen version.

I agree that a 'print version' shouldn't be used as an excuse to NOT make
your screen version accessible, but I think most would agree that no matter
how accessible your screen version is, a very simple, content-centric print
version can still be a nice thing for the end-user.

-Darrel