when is some too much? WAS RE: [thelist] Link Types

[Mark Gallagher]

Chris,

> > From: sasha [mailto:spam at bittersweet2.com]
>I had a similar conversation a few months back with someone who was
>convinced that he shouldn't have to make his website accessible to unix
>users, simply because his business, selling truetype fonts, caters to
>Mac
>users.  My partner, who has the most control over our finances, uses
>unix
>and would have said no to purchasing from him because he would not have
>been able to read the microscopic font size used on the site.
>
>In your example, how do you know it isn't a blind parent searching for a
>quality gym for a son/daughter?  How do you know it isn't an aunt/uncle
>at
>work at a unix terminal searching for a gift for a niece/nephew?
>---------------
>
>yes. this is where the line gets fuzzy.
>
>i'm not arguing that i sholdn't make my site (regardless of what the
>content is) accessible to different kinds of people. but where do you
>drawn the line? and should i be required to do so?

You draw the line where you, personally, wish to draw it.  If you want to
make a site all graphics (graphics with 10px high serif fonts, no less), no
ALT text, with redirects to block users of everything but IE6, an incredibly
stupid dependance on JavaScript, that's your right.

However, if you've half a brain, you'd bother to do rather a bit more than
that.  There's no need to rely on graphics, flash, JavaScript, Java,
ActiveX, or CSS in the vast majority of sites.  There's no reason *not* to
make your site accessible to users of old browsers, to blind people, to deaf
people, or even to people who wear purple underwear three times a week.
None of these issues should be enough to prevent people viewing your site.
But if you want them to be, well, then just give the world the finger and
leave it at that.  It's a right you have, and one that shouldn't be taken
away from you.

>what about religous and/or ethnic/cultural differences?

Pretty much irrelevant.

easterners see
>white as representing death (afaik) and westerners see black as
>representing death. should there be two different websites

Well, many Asian cultures see white as representing death, and pretty much
all European and European-offshoots use black.  I wouldn't go "east-west",
because it's probably not that simple.  If you're that interested, though,
go ask someone who actually knows :-)

based on
>where the using is coming from (if it can be determined) as to not
>offend or anyone or cause confusion? what about people that don't speak
>my language? how many different languages should i support?

Accessibility is all about making your site accessible to the largest
proportion of people possible.  What they do with the information they
receive afterwards (become enlightened, become offended, whatever), is
frankly the problem of whoever wrote the content.

If that happens to be you, well... it's probably important to find out then,
eh?  But that's not an accessibility issue.

As an aside, black backgrounds aren't going to offend people of European
cultures, and white backgrounds won't harm anyone, either.

>I personally use Lynx as a guide as to how accessible a site is.  For
>your
>average sites, I'd say a Lynx test is good enough.  If you've ever used
>a
>text only browser for real actual browsing, you'll appreciate a site
>where
>they actually put work into it to ensure it is accessible to the visual
>impaired.
>---------------
>
>i've never tried a text browser, but i'd be interested in seeing what it
>looks like and how it works. can you point to any articles that describe
>their setup and use? is it a *nix thing only?

http://lynx.browser.org/

It's definitely available for Windows and *nix (I've used both), and maybe
Mac, too.  There's two other text browsers I've used in the past - Links and
w3m.  Links is available for Windows and *nix, but back when I used Windows
I had a bugger of a time getting it to work.  I don't know about w3m - it
came with my install, and (unlike Lynx and Links) I rarely use it.

>don't get me wrong, i am interested in accessibility and think it's a
>good thing.

Oh, good.


--
Mark Gallagher
http://cyberfuddle.com/infinitebabble/



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