Leigh, may we forward your message on to our state lists? I try to promote making our pages accessible to all visitors and not just those that have the latest and greatest browsers and computers. We still have at least one person who accesses our pages by way of email. (yes, it's still possible) Connie Elsi wrote: > At 09:52 AM 5/3/2003 -0400, Tim Stowell wrote: > >At 02:31 PM 5/3/03 +0100, Elsi wrote: > > > > > >A much better effort for our organization would be to start proposing > > >accessibility standards. > > > >Elsi, > > > >Do you mean things like ALT tags and other such HTML / XML items that > >assist the blind and/or otherwise handicapped? > > Definitely the ALT tags. And meaningful ALT tags. For example if there is > a scanned image of a will, one should use the LONGDESC with a full > transcript of the contents, not just an ALT label saying "Will of George > Peters" -- or link to the transcript. In other words, don't restrict > content because of a handicap. > > But there are a ton of other things that need to be done to enable our > pages to be used by ALL, whether able-bodied or not: > * Only using tables for tabular data and not for layout/appearance. Screen > readers have a very hard time dealing with table-based layouts. > * Making sure that font choices can be overridden by the user as > desired/necessary. Those with limited vision (maybe even just an elderly > person) may need to enlarge fonts in order to read the text. > * Making sure that our pages can be navigated entirely by keyboard and not > require a mouse. (And removing the mousey language such as "click here".) > * Making sure that pages will print properly. Some accessibility tools use > a 'printed' view of the page. > * Ensuring that music doesn't automatically play. A deaf person might not > know that the speakers are turned up to full volume & thus disturb someone > nearby. > * Ensuring that pages display legibly (if not as attractively) on WebTV and > small monitors (800x600 for example). > > The W3C has guidelines posted at http://www.w3.org/WAI/ > > You can validate your pages using Bobby at > http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp > > Elsi

At 01:56 PM 5/3/2003 -0500, you wrote: >Leigh, may we forward your message on to our state lists? I try to promote >making our pages accessible to all visitors and not just those that have the >latest and greatest browsers and computers. We still have at least one person >who accesses our pages by way of email. (yes, it's still possible) Yes - I give my permission for my mail to be forwarded to any and all lists. Regards, Elsi >Connie > >Elsi wrote: > > > At 09:52 AM 5/3/2003 -0400, Tim Stowell wrote: > > >At 02:31 PM 5/3/03 +0100, Elsi wrote: > > > > > > > >A much better effort for our organization would be to start proposing > > > >accessibility standards. > > > > > >Elsi, > > > > > >Do you mean things like ALT tags and other such HTML / XML items that > > >assist the blind and/or otherwise handicapped? > > > > Definitely the ALT tags. And meaningful ALT tags. For example if there is > > a scanned image of a will, one should use the LONGDESC with a full > > transcript of the contents, not just an ALT label saying "Will of George > > Peters" -- or link to the transcript. In other words, don't restrict > > content because of a handicap. > > > > But there are a ton of other things that need to be done to enable our > > pages to be used by ALL, whether able-bodied or not: > > * Only using tables for tabular data and not for layout/appearance. Screen > > readers have a very hard time dealing with table-based layouts. > > * Making sure that font choices can be overridden by the user as > > desired/necessary. Those with limited vision (maybe even just an elderly > > person) may need to enlarge fonts in order to read the text. > > * Making sure that our pages can be navigated entirely by keyboard and not > > require a mouse. (And removing the mousey language such as "click here".) > > * Making sure that pages will print properly. Some accessibility tools use > > a 'printed' view of the page. > > * Ensuring that music doesn't automatically play. A deaf person might not > > know that the speakers are turned up to full volume & thus disturb someone > > nearby. > > * Ensuring that pages display legibly (if not as attractively) on WebTV and > > small monitors (800x600 for example). > > > > The W3C has guidelines posted at http://www.w3.org/WAI/ > > > > You can validate your pages using Bobby at > > http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp > > > > Elsi