tomfmason Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 This moring I was watching Devshed's weekly "News You Can't Use". In the broad cast, they mentioned that a Us Federal Court ruled that Retailers may be suied if there web site is inexcessable to the blind.... What is that? Here is a link to the [url=http://images.devshed.com/technews/technews_final.php]broad cast[/url]. The part about the suit starts at 3 mins 55 sec. This is the craziest thing that I have ever heard of. Do we need to start codding in barille now?Any comments?Thanks Tom, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 No not braille, but you can make it accessible by using proper coding. Not using images to display text, adding alt and title tags to images. Using accesskeys etc. stuff that will make it easy to navigate the site and will enable you to use text readers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ober Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 Daniel is correct. This doesn't have anything to do with braille. You need to build your site so it can be navigated by a screen reader. If you're not doing things like this already, you should really do some research on accessability on the web. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 I wonder how many blind people actually surf the web. Not tryin' to dis blind people or nothin'. Just seems like an interesting thing to find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 If you wan't to learn more about accessibility, then checkout this page: http://www.sitepoint.com/subcat/accessibility Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ober Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 Oddly enough, I actually got an email from a blind person not too long ago asking about something for a specific website. So they're out there... but who knows what their numbers are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 [quote]This is the craziest thing that I have ever heard of[/quote]Then obviously you've never heard about the W3C WAI group, or about US 508 (Americans with Disabilities Act) or countless other pieces of legislation that exist in countries around the world that require compliance for certain industries and applications. And yes, it applies to web sites [i]in certain instances[/i]. If you can't create a compliant web site, then your chances of getting work from a government agency just dropped to near zero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomfmason Posted September 16, 2006 Author Share Posted September 16, 2006 You guys realy ragged on me for this one. I just thought I would post this here to inform you of the new lawsuit.The thought of a blind person surfing the web never occured to me. Before yesterday morning I had never heard of any blind people surfing the web. From what danielo said, I don't think that it will be that much work to make it accessable to every one. I don't realy want to exclude anyone for any reason and will make every resonable attempt to make it accessable to everyone.I will read up on that. Thanks for the links. Any more links to articles on accessibility would be great.Thanks,Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 First - a link to links on current legislative standards (many of which standards have been around for a long, long, time - http://www.accessify.com/links-and-resources/governmental-policy/?category=Governmental+Policy[quote author=tomfmason link=topic=108124.msg435266#msg435266 date=1158365296]From what danielo said, I don't think that it will be that much work to make it accessable to every one.[/quote] Well, unless your code is very close to accessible right now that's an optimistic view. While there are automated tools that can check your site, there's nothing like the W3C html and CSS validators to 'prove' you have met any of the three WAI levels. One important factor is redesigning menus (and your pages) so that they are accessible to people who don't use a mouse and don't want to tab through a thousand sidebar links to reach the content.One of the biggest difficulties you'll face is [i]understanding[/i] what the heck the WAI standards actually mean in terms of real life coding, and then coming up with code that meets the standard. [quote]I don't realy want to exclude anyone for any reason and will make every resonable attempt to make it accessable to everyone.[/quote]That's the only correct path. If you think of it in terms of customers coming into a store, why would you not want all of them to come in and buy?http://www.accessify.com/ is packed with accessibility aids and facts.The very best tool I've ever found for checking standards and accessibility is available (at present) only for the world's most popular browser and runs as a simple browser toolbar so you're only ever one click away from checking and evaluating your page live. I use it all the time and you can get one at http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=614 [you do check your sites in IE don't you?] and it's free.Another excellent accessibility tool is http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/ - free.Stick with it and you will be able to get it done. You'll learn a lot and be justifiably proud when you have an accessible site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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