Re: Universal Accessibility

At 5:22 PM -0700 2001/7/27, Rob Wood wrote:
>2. Cool vs Uncool. In the final analysis, the customer is still 
>always right. We
>can address the UA issue and explain the ramifications, but if the 
>client wants
>"bells and whistles" all over the place, the client gets bells and 
>whistles. If
>the client then doesn't want to spend money to make the site accessible to all
>browsers, what are we do do? Say, "no"? They'll simply find another 
>designer who
>will give them what they want.

Good suggestions, Rob (and others) --

One thing that's also very useful and can't be emphasized enough is
the importance of _user testing_ (a la Nielsen, etc).  Always offer
it to your clients (and of course be prepared to do it!) because
often the only way you can actually resolve "what's the _RIGHT_ thing
to do?" is by seeing what effects it has on the end users.

And, of course, it's not always the case that "bells and whistles"
are incompatible with universal accessibility -- in fact, for many
audiences the glitter and glitz can actually _enhance_ accessibility
and usability of the site.  Just be sure to encode alternatives and
such for accessibility's sake.

--Kynn

PS:  ObPlug, the next session of my online course on accessible web
      design starts in September!  http://access.idyllmtn.com/d201/

-- 
Kynn Bartlett <kynn(at)idyllmtn.com>
http://www.kynn.com/

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