[WEB4LIB] Re: Web/ADA/uh oh...

[David Merchant]

>http://user.icx.net/~pgantt/development/laboratory/

Nice collection.

>Turns out what is simple clean web design is also
>great web best practice for accessibility. For get the
>silly bells and whistles and go for content.

Also, think of visually-impaired: color-blindness, need for large type.
Too many sites use color combinations of text and bgcolor that for many
visually-impaired would be difficult to read, if they are able to read it
at all.  Many users can change the settings of their browser to over-ride
your settings, but for a .gov, .edu, etc site that must meet ADA
compliancy, it seems rude to force those users to have to do that. I know
that even the most careful design can not meet all visual-impairment needs
but we can try more than most of us (me included) do.  Also we need to take
into consideration that most libraries lock down their desktop, such that
the user/patron cannot change the preferences on the browser, and that
those that use Netscape don't have a toolbar item for easy changing to
larger font size and so we need to design with that in mind: that users may
not be able to change browser preferences.  Validator sites won't catch
that kind of thing, nor will they catch the fact that you can have your
site validated perfectly but still not "work" visual design-wise in some
browsers (as some tags that may work in all browsers, work differently in
different browsers).  Having said that, validators still are helpful tools
for your HTML coding.

>BTW I know Shirl. She was pointing out the necessity of making your
>web sites accessible to all. So thanks Shirl for the send and the opportunity
>to bring up accessibility and start the discussion thread rolling.

I agree.

TTFN,
David


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