[thelist] Tip o'the day (x2)

[aardvark]

> From: "Tony Crockford" <tonyc at boldfish.co.uk>
> 
> Which is exactly why we have to *show* them that their browser is out
> of date and *encourage* them to upgrade it somehow.

that's a lovely (if not self-serving) argument but for two points:

- people cannot upgrade because the hardware will not support it... 
for example, my library uses old 486s that can barely run NN3.04... 
they're not going to upgrade.... they just don't have the funds.... 
telling those users that they aren't good enough because they don't 
have the latest browser is elitism...

- people cannot upgrade because the *user* can't use it... as an 
example, i spent some time the other day watching blind and 
otherwise handicapped users surf... some screen-readers can 
almost handle stuff like the ALA site... most of the other tools 
crapped the bed... not only is there case law to suggest telling 
handicapped users to go away is illegal, there's also a federal law 
on the books in US preventing you from doing that for government 
sites...

> If we continue to support older browsers by painstakingly recreating
> and recoding our designs, there's a significant danger that the paying
> client will gravitate towards the cheaper (because she's standards
> compliant) designer.

um, please remember.... standards compliance does *not* 
automatically equal a better design, or a cheaper design...  it does 
*not* mean a site will be accessible... ultimately, it's still difficult to 
build a site to cater to all your users, whether you go with 
standards or not... this is because, as a smart business person, 
you need to fnd a way *not* to exclude any users, because that's 
just turning away customers...

> Educating clients on cross browser compatibility will eventually sound
> like a *magic* way to increase the fee - how long will they stand for
> it?

hell, they don't stand for it now... but ultimately, you have to 
educate the client... and when that client fires up her copy of NN4 
on windows (which happens a lot), tell me how to explain that what 
i've built is a better solution -- because it's standards-compliant, but 
doesn't work on her browser?

building it to degrade *and* be standards-compliant can be done, 
easily, and without extra cost, *if* you make the conscious effort to 
do it up-front...

> Act NOW!
> 
> Educate, Inform, and standardise.
> 
> Before it's too late.

too late for what?  sounds like a bolshevik-era poster... would be 
pretty cool... throw a little animal farm in there with pigs wearing 
pants...