[WEB4LIB] Re: Web page color & accessibility

[Patricia F Anderson]

Yes, this is what I do for myself, but as Ann points out, it does not
always work, and does not work with graphics. I also find that not all of
our students can cope with the intricacies this implies. Or more likely,
the students will be fine, but the faculty and alumni (and potential
donors) struggle. I have had it emphasized to me that potential donors are
often attracted by the free resources we emphasize. Creating barriers can
potentially reduce the number of donors attracted. Perhaps a mercenary
take, but one which has big implications for the administration who
reviews the choices we make in our web sites. I find in trying to sell
usability for ADA issues, that bringing up the issues of the elderly donor
whose hands tremble and who wears bifocals is sometimes a more powerful
persuasion than 'because it is the right thing to do.'

Patricia ANderson, pfa at umich.edu

On Tue, 3 Dec 2002, Ann Owens wrote:

> Yes, but that only works for those pcs that have word processing
> enabled.  In our system, most of the public Internet pcs do not allow
> access to any word processors, not even WordPad.  I believe our patrons
> can alter the page settings to force printing of text in black.  For an
> application like the one originally proposed, I've found that some sites
> use graphical elements for the reverse text, which are not affected by
> the page settings.
>
> Ann S. Owens
> Electronic Resources Librarian
> Sacramento Public Library
> 828 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
> Phone: (916)264-2940    Fax: (916)264-2950
>
> "The difference between ordinary and extraordinary
> is that little extra."
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> <snip>
> > However, I want to mention
> > a little trick
> > I show to students when they encounter "dark background",
> > fancy-shmancy (shamancy :-) animations or otherwise
> > "unprintable" pages, but they are really desperate and want
> > to print the text: Select the text you need > go to edit >
> > copy > open word processor > edit
> > >paste special > paste unformatted text (unformatted to eliminate all
> > >the
> > HTML codes, tables and images).
> > The text often needs additional editing (removing extra lines
> > and spaces), but it works MOST of the time.  Of course, I
> > always remain students to copy/paste the author, title,
> > publisher, URL, etc. to have the proper data for citing.
> >
> > One more cent :-)
> >
> > Andy Mezynski
> > mezynsab at lacitycollege.edu
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>