[thechat] rebel without a clause

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Tue Oct 29 13:15:00 CST 2002


> From: "Tony Crockford" <tonyc at boldfish.co.uk>
>
> > > I'm feeling grouchy today, someone tell me that there are web
> > > sites out there that are "good" in terms of accessibility, browser
> > > compatibility etc and still "good" to look at....
> >
> > there are... many of them... and probably more than that...
>
> anyone got any I can look at, make it seem all worthwhile?

well, my not-designed site has received a lot of compliements for
being attractive (and i still haven't gotten around to actually putting
any real *design* work into it) and it's XHTML 1 trans compliant...
and then there's my company site, which validates to HTML4.01
transitional... so is evolt.org... all the sites i build are at least level
A accessible to the WAI, some are triple...

samples:
http://roselli.org/adrian/ (XHTML 1.0 Trans)
http://algonquinstudios.com/ (HTML 4.01 Trans)
http://evolt.org/ (HTML 4.01 Trans)
http://olmstedcenter.org/home.asp (HTML 4.01 Trans, Level AAA
compliance, and yes, I resisted the Flash, but they insisted)

plus many many more i've touched... and i know there are a lot of
wonderful designers on this list who've done similar or better, plus
all those CSS sites that get tossed around over on css-d...

fwiw, i prefer to design within limitations -- it makes me more
creative in my problem solving...

> > and sometimes i want to feel like i'm not painting "No Step" on the
> > very edges of the caboose on the train, while knowing that people
> > are still gonna ignore it and step off the back...
> >
> > ah well...
>
> I sometimes wonder if the harder we try to make the world a safer
> place the more stupid people become.

i suspect you fear is accurate... didn't some people just sue fast
food chains for making them fat?  didn't mcdonald's settle for a
woman pouring coffee in her lap?

see, in the real world, as on the web, i have to problem making
stuff accessible to the lowest-common denominator, but there's a
difference between really helping and just pandering...

but that's a whole different discussion...

> Are we evolving in the wrong direction?

yes, we have been for a couple hundred years... of course, have to
be careful how you frame darwinism so you don't come off
sounding like you're spouting eugenics...


--
Read the evolt.org case study
Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151035/evoltorg02-20
ISBN: 1904151035



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