What is missing in accessible design?

Topic was: Local government web site accessibility
New topic begun: 13 March 2002 by Kukla Fran and Ollie

>Does a web site suffer in visual design, appearance and/or content 
>if it must adhere to an established accessibility standard?  Must a 
>web site suffer in visual design, appearance and/or content if it 
>must adhere to an established accessibility standard?
>
>In my limited experience observing the before/after effects, many of 
>these redesigned sites seem to have lost a quality factor. 
>Something is missing.

Nearly all accessibly-designed web sites lack a conceptual design 
focus. So do most other web sites but this condition is more 
pervasive in the accessible design community. Authors of those sites 
have learned how to place images and format text and organize 
information, which means accessible sites are often quite usable but, 
in terms of visual design, only "OK" at best and often "blah," as 
Kukla et al observed.

What is missing? Conceptual design. The effective presentation of the 
essence of a topic, an idea, a movement, a place, a person, a group. 
Conceptual design searches for intangible qualities and expresses 
those using a deep understanding of culture, color, history, shape, 
harmony (or discord) and symbolic meaning. Conceptual designers reach 
beneath the surface of a subject and ask questions most web designers 
don't stop to consider.

Conceptual design provides beauty and grace we can appreciate but not 
describe. When it's missing, we know something is gone but we can't 
express what and we don't spend time trying. We move on to the next 
blah web site, the next boilerplate newspaper ad, the next ho-hum 
newsletter or brochure.

So where does this leave us? Should conceptual designers learn 
accessible web design techniques? Only conceptually -- they can 
appreciate the worthiness of accessible design but their talents 
shouldn't be wasted by chaining them to nuts-and-bolts detail. Marry 
them, instead, into a team that includes strong coding skills and 
good editorial practitioners and an art director/project manager who 
steps back to look at the whole process coming together.

This thread segues into my conviction (seasoned with nearly five 
years of studying, teaching and practicing accessible design, and 
listening to all the discussion lists on the topic) that inspired, 
creative web design that employs accessible design techniques simply 
isn't profitable.

That, perhaps, is a discussion topic for another day. Hope this helps.


. . / tom mcCain

tom(at)crittur.com
http://www.crittur.com
indianapolis, indiana usa

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