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Nicole
Posts: 2830
Joined: 9/15/2004
From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia
Status: offline
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RE: Yet another survey - 12/5/2006 17:06:53
Good article Tail,
The thing is, who commissions these surveys? And besides publishing the results online somewhere, what is actually being done in the way of following any of the recommendations these surveys would obviously include?
My opinion, leaving the commercial and moral reasons aside and focusing on the legal issue, Governments around the world have to take the upper hand on this issue, their websites have to meet AAA standards and so should any subsidiary departments filtering down through other levels of government and then into non-government organisations.
These governments should be creating a register of those designers that already know how to produce accessible sites and they should form a list of approved designers who are then chosen from to design these government sites. The problem is, the Australian Government has guidelines in place but they're not enforced to my knowledge by anyone, therefore very few government sites meet these minimum requirements themselves.
Then over time, a "task force" should be set up to provide information and training to other web designers, even a small grant provided to help them with the expence of learning instead or earning income, and a time limit of say 3 years or so should be given for all business websites created by web design businesses to comply.
How hard would it really be for a small government initiated group to spend 6 months on the phone to all the web design businesses listed in the yellow pages and found through search engines in their countries telling them that their sites don't comply with minimum standards, providing them with an information kit and giving them a time limit to have their sites comply? Alternately how difficult would it really be for a directive to be issued from the top down to all local and state governments and their agencies to have their websites comply with accessibility standards and to specifically ask their designers to provide accessible websites for them? It really wouldn't be difficult I think, the only ones that slipped through would be the unregistered designers and friends of friends who do sites on the cheap for their mates. And those would continue to run the risk of legal action.
As a new web design business was registered they'd automatically be issued with the information kit and be offered training.
Dreaming I know.
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Tailslide
Posts: 6036
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Out here on the raggedy edge
Status: offline
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RE: Yet another survey - 12/6/2006 9:12:33
The thing with accessibility is that it can be quite difficult to enforce rigidly by law for several reasons.
Firstly, there are different opinions within the accessibility world itself regarding what is and isn't a helpful accessibility aid. A good example of that is accesskeys. Technically, without accesskeys your site will fail many of the automated checkers which are used by many to check their sites. However accesskeys are pretty much universally derided as worse than useless - in fact they're a hindrance to accessibility.
Secondly, there's an element of reasonableness in the UK legislation - as with the physical disability discrimination enforcement - you must make reasonable adjustments. It's feasable therefore that a site can remain on the right side of the law and still be inaccessible. Possibly if they've just spent several million pounds on a new CMS for instance. It might be considered unreasonable for them to be expected to dump it and start again.
So in the end the best approach is for fans of accessible websites to push for more of them plus designers like us should encourage others in the business to understand the issues concerned, do all they can to address them, be aware of their site's shortcomings and show willing to help users who find themselves unable to use the site as much as they can.
Basically - think about the subject, do your best and show willing.
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"My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it"
Little Blue Plane Web Design | Blood, Sweat & Rust - A Land Rover restoration project
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Nicole
Posts: 2830
Joined: 9/15/2004
From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia
Status: offline
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RE: Yet another survey - 12/6/2006 16:15:43
I generally agree with all that's been written thus far, but I do feel that Governments should be doing more, they should be leading the way,
I was working in a government department when OH&S & EEO were introduced in the 80's, every single staff member was required to undertake courses in regard to these, 20 years later the small business course I did a few years ago included sections on both also.
Web designers do spring from everywhere, but really they're not too difficult to track down and communicate with if governments were really taking this seriously. Send them an information kit and randomly check sites produced by these designers.
Another problem is that designers, I think, arre too afraid to say "no" to a client who requests something that isn't accessible, or the designers don't have the know-horw to reason with the site owners and explain to them "why".
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