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Re: Org charts

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Oct 11, 2005 10:00AM

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005, Hoffman, Allen wrote:

> What I need to complete is simple, clear, and doable instructions for
> people who are used to drawing org charts,

Simple instructions:

Create first a text presentation of the organization. You may use lists
(list markup), including nested lists, if necessary. Read it aloud, at
least in your mind, to check that it makes sense that way.

Then create whatever graphic presentation you like. Include a textual link
to the firstly created presentation onto the page where you have the
graphic presentation. Example (to be written before the chart):

<div><small>There is also a <a href="orgtext.html">textual
description of the organization</a> that contains the same
information as the chart below.</small></div>

If the graphic presentation is embedded as an image, use
alt="(Organization chart)" for the <img> element.

Note: It might be possible to write simpler instructions, or instructions
that require less work to follow. I don't think, however, that there are
any simpler or less demanding instructions that achieve accessibility even
at the absolute minimum level.

If you can't create an accessible version of organizational information,
it is better to admit and express that than to do something half-baked
that wastes everyone's (authors' and users') time, like adding
"accessibility features" to a presentation that cannot be, by its very
nature, accessible to all.

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/