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Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 4:33 am
by JayBird
malcolmboston wrote:BBC offers a text-only service which was obviously built for accessibility issues and internet speed problems.

however BBC is the exception to this case, many sites are now built from PSD's, a99% of sites that does this will not work properly for braille and text-only services.
IMO opinion this isn't the case.

Just becuase a web page is text only doesn't mean it is accessible.

I quote from W3.org "Text-only pages should not be necessary to ensure accessibility of Web pages that follow the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines," except in very rare cases. In fact, text-only pages are frequently counterproductive to accessibility since they tend to be kept less up-to-date than "primary pages," or in some cases leave out information that is on primary pages.

Many sites that have made a commitment to accessibility in the past have used text-only pages as a solution; however, it should be unnecessary in almost all cases, or even inadvisable, to set up and maintain a separate set of text-only pages."

It is now a requirement in law for commercial site to adhere to certain accessibilty rules...especially if the site is offering jobs in any kind of form becuase this can be contrude as discrimination.

I agree that most of the time it is a pain in the ass, but it is an issue that you shouldn't overlook.

read this for more info on legislation - http://www.w3.org/WAI/Policy/#UK

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 4:47 am
by onion2k
Bech100 wrote:I agree that most of the time it is a pain in the ass, but it is an issue that you shouldn't overlook.
Thats just it though. So long as you're producing well formed, standards compliant code, and using a bit of common sense in your design its not a pain in the arse at all. Striving to reach a high standard of code makes your websites better. Plus, all these accessibility things make your site more indexable by search engines.. Theres really no downside to making an accessible site unless you're lazy and you're happy putting bad code online.

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 6:37 am
by JayBird
onion2k wrote:
Bech100 wrote:I agree that most of the time it is a pain in the ass, but it is an issue that you shouldn't overlook.
Thats just it though. So long as you're producing well formed, standards compliant code, and using a bit of common sense in your design its not a pain in the arse at all. Striving to reach a high standard of code makes your websites better. Plus, all these accessibility things make your site more indexable by search engines.. Theres really no downside to making an accessible site unless you're lazy and you're happy putting bad code online.
if only it were as simple as you make it sound :roll: