[thelist] RE: Bait & "standards"

[John Dowdell]

I've just read about 200 overnight posts on this and other web design lists:

--  some say that old browsers should be forgotten

--  some counter that potential customers cannot be ignored

--  some say richer presentations can give measurably increased results

--  there are always accessibility issues too

--  some say that nothing should be used which is not in some
file-specification document

Pretty much everyone seems to agree on the general principle that
satisfying your client, and their customers, is the overall name of the
game. Where this kilobytes of quotes seem to diverge is in the appropriate
strategy for all cases.


I think Eveline may have had the strongest sound bite here:
> When my client wants all the hooters and bells, I always suggest
> they better make it a double site.

Whether "hooters and bells" means SWF or big media loads or HTML
4.01-Strict validation or whatever, it can always be helpful to provide
access to the same information optimized for a text-based voice reader.

Rephrased, why *not* just include a navigation for spoken text, alongside
whatever level of viewership you want for your richer representation? A
well-done text/voice navigation will be accessible to everyone, and you
won't have to give up your chosen goodies, whether it's an "approved" DOM
or whatever.


Do all these problems fade away if we look at it as providing for that
minimal access path, and then having your richer representation be at
whatever level you and your client deem the best fit for that particular
audience...?

jd





John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US
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