[thelist] Accessible Design. Was: Tips/Tricks/Tidbits... what do you add?

[Micky Hulse]

Christian Heilmann wrote:
> Accessibility is not about creating a special habitat for handicapped
> people where they see things others don't, it is about taking the
> extra step to also support these groups to improve the overall
> product. If the improvement interferes with the experience of the
> others in a brutal way (like alert() boxes in Ajax apps to make really
> old screen readers aware of what is happening) then it shouldn't be
> done either.

OT, but... in USA, we have handicap parking... Most times there is a 
spot next to those parking spots that has a bunch of diagonal lines 
through it, with a sign above that says "NO PARKING"...

Well, I would just like to let peeps know that they should not park 
there under any circumstances.

I did not realize this until recently... that is for ramps. Lets say a 
person who is hadicap parks, gets out using side ramp and goes inside 
(for example) a store... then Bubba rolls up and parks in the ramp spot 
(cause it is closest and he is lazy) and he goes inside... then hadicap 
person comes back and can not get into car due to Bubbas car blocking 
the entrance/ramp.

Hehe... I guess Christians comment above reminded me of that.... Seems 
like all this talk of accessibility becomes more academic at times. I 
mean, where are the actual real world statistics? I hear all this talk 
about what is better, but how many of us have actually been around a 
blind person surfing the web (for example)?

Of course, I am probably over-simplifying things here.

I personally have never met a blind person... is that the one disability 
that we are really catering to when making pages more "accessible"?

Or, is it the screen-reader software that is dictating the direction 
accessible design should head? If so, what kind of guidelines do the 
screen reader software developers follow?

Just curious. I obviously have a ton yet to learn about accessible web 
design.

Cheers,
Micky



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