[IxDA Discuss] Apparently, IxD is not obscure enough

[Michael Micheletti]

I'm a little surprised that we haven't discussed accessibility more
frequently in this forum.

It's challenging to design and build good web applications. It's
exceptionally challenging to design and build good web applications that
also meet the WAI's accessibility guidelines. For those of you unfamiliar,
here's the address of their "10 Quick Tips" page:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/quicktips/

One of the most difficult of the WAI recommendations is to provide alternate
content in case scripting is unavailable. The reason for this is that screen
readers and other assisting technology may not support Javascript or other
active content. It's pretty hard to create a scripting-intensive web
application that remains effective after failing softly into a noscript
mode.

If you ever have opportunity to observe a visually disabled person
navigating the web with the assistance of screen reader software, please do
so. I know the experience made a big impression on me.

Michael Micheletti

On 8/24/07, andrew_hinton at vanguard.com <andrew_hinton at vanguard.com> wrote:
>
> I also suspect that the Accessibility person comes with some
> built-in gravitas -- to disagree with him/her would sound like you
> want to harm the disabled. Plus, dismissing them would run the
> risk of legal entanglement (if this is in the US with the Americans with
> Disabilities Act).
>
> We need an Americans with Interaction Design That Doesn't Suck Act.
>