RE: Hello?

Ah, so you are proposing a "separate but [almost] equal Web" for those with disabilities?  If you really feel the way you do about this issue, why are you on this list for people who actually care about these things?  Your message borders on looking like a troll.

The more I look at the principles of accessibility design, the more I discover than they also make for a better usability experience for those who are not disabled.  If you really want to make your Web site successful, don't spend all of your efforts on bells and whistles.  Instead focus on the content and create something that the readers need (or at least want) from you.

A flashy site might get a few spectators to wander in to look at the fireworks, but it's probably not going to accomplish its true goals if that's all it does.  I'll let you in on a little secret here: whenever I go to a site that has a Flash video introduction, the first thing I do is click on the "Skip This Intro" link, and I'm not the only one.

And furthermore, the Web was not designed to be a visual based medium, and if you really believe so you should read a little bit of its history.  The first browsers didn't even support graphics, and were designed for the exchange of information, not Joe Cartoon animations (and I'm not saying that I don't enjoy Joe Cartoon).


-----Original Message-----
From: Lauren Hanka [mailto:bluejay(at)starband.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 2:03 PM
To: aware-techniques(at)hwg.org
Subject: re: Hello?


I'm here John, and have been watching with hesitated interest. Please, be
don't be disgusted, but I find accessibility issues annoying. Tell me why
one must study, on top of all the other studies that are required to keep up
with this ever-changing, and highly competitive field, to make a site
accessible for the visually impaired, when if this is desired, all that's
really needed, as far as I understand, is make a "text only" duplicate of an
existing site? Am I wrong? Short-sighted? After all, the Web, *is* a
visually based medium, as is television. Of course, I am in agreement that
easily accessible *information* be available for the visually impaired on
the net, just annoyed that a separate and specialized technique must be
learned and employed to make a basically visual site easier to see for the
visually impaired --it just doesn't make sense in the efficiency department.

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