Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Designing Accessible Websites

Author:Sean Lindsay
Posted:5/6/1999; 5:44:28 PM
Topic:Designing Accessible Websites
Msg #:5764 (In response to 5719)
Prev/Next:5763 / 5765

The problem is not that web sites are more or less accessible to a minority of the population (by this token, what about illiterates?) -- the problem is that there are people, such as Sean Lindsay, who have no qualms about allowing some obscure characters operating in the shadow of the government to become de facto editors and webmasters to each and every site.

This is an absurd suggestion, and unnecessarily personal.

Firstly, the new US government regulations only apply to US government agency sites. The information on these sites is already controlled by government. The issue here is whether people with certain disabilities have as much access to this information as the average US internet-using citizen.

Secondly, the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines have been in open development for more than a year. There is nothing shadowy or obscure about this process. Anybody could have (and did) chime in with their two cents at anytime.

Thirdly, I'm not a US citizen nor am I responsible for any US government sites. I design for accessibility because I respect my readers. I offered advice to others who wished to respect their readers.

Mr Dambournet, can you please explain to me why you think that a government-employed webmaster has the right to decide which US citizens are allowed access to their agency's information?

Or perhaps you can explain what browser effect is so damn cool that you can't be bothered to offer an alternative.

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