Coding for intranets (was RE: [thelist] Color Chooser Review -- c orrection)

[Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns]

At 06:11 PM 5/28/2002, you typed:
>.jeff, rudy, whoever -
>
>You both know I share your feelings about usability, accessibility, etc.
>You've both commented on practical application of these concepts in a closed
>environment.
>
>If I control the environment (and will continue to control it unless I leave
>the company) what are the dangers of browser specific coding?

Well, what if you decide you want to switch from using browser A to browser
B for some reason? (such as if browser A's upgrades aren't as good as
browser B anymore, or maybe browser B didn't even exist awhile back.....)

Either way, though, if you continue to create your Internet with standards
in mind, accessibility in mind, usability in mind, you won't have as many
switch-over problems if you continue to work with a standards-oriented
browser. You'll have that particular browser's quirks to contend with, of
course, since each browser company doesn't interpret the W3C
recommendations the same (and a few of the recommendations are still vague
enough that this has happened -- see Jeffrey Zeldman's weblog
<http://www.zeldman.com/> where he's written about this within the past
month or two especially).

So in the long run, it saves the company money.... the bottom line that
companies usually appreciate and want.

No browser is perfect (and don't we all know that?!?!? Geesh) and each has
its strong and weak points and will mean changes to your Internet web pages
in some way if it changes.

And if you leave and someone else takes over and decides to take another
approach, well, it ought to be easier, hopefully, on the next person, too.

>Or, in Tom's
>case, if it's not possible for a blind or other special user to even access
>the system, what are the real-world problems with coding with that in mind?

Any chance of having a blind employee? While I don't mean this at all in a
discriminatory way, there are tasks that one must be sighted to do, while
others can do fine whether sighted or not.

Seems to me that if you don't have any blind employees right now (or other
disabilities) and you're working with standards in mind that it would be
easy enough to accommodate down the line if it comes up.

I would have a different opinion for a Web site open to the world, of
course. Intranets are different, though.

>Are there cases where the rules can legitimately be ignored?

I wouldn't say so much "ignore" as choose not to implement at the moment,
keeping in mind that it could change in the future and allowing for that
possibility to ensure a smoother transition if needed.

Warmly,
Shirley

--
Shirley E. Kaiser, M.A.,  SKDesigns  mailto:skaiser1 at skdesigns.com
Website Design, Development      http://www.skdesigns.com/
WebsiteTips: Design Resources  http://www.websitetips.com/
Brainstorms and Raves  http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/
WaSP Steering Committee       http://www.webstandards.org/